Are you talking to me? Influencing behaviour and culture in police interviews

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between two types of influencing behaviour in police interviews (being kind and rational persuasion) and three types of interview effectiveness, i.e. the suspects’ willingness to give a statement, their estimation of the quality of the relationship with the detective, and suspects’ admission. We expected that being kind and rational persuasion (arguments referring to logic and rationality) would have a different effect on suspects from cultures that tend to be direct and content-oriented (low-context cultures) versus cultures in which communication is more indirect and context orientated (high-context cultures). To examine this, experienced police detectives interviewed mock theft suspects from low-context (n=25) and high-context (n=27) cultures. As predicted, and particularly for high-context suspects, being kind in terms of rewarding and offering was positively related to the perceived quality of the relationship of the suspect, while being kind in terms of active listening behaviour was positively related to admissions. Furthermore, and as expected, there was a positive relationship between rational persuasion of the police detective and admissions for low-context suspects, but also a negative relationship between rational persuasion and admissions for high-context suspects.     

The cognitive interview: Much more than simply “try again”

Abstract

In the legal context, the elicitation of complete and accurate statements from witnesses and victims is essential. The Cognitive Interview (CI) was devised to improve eyewitnesses' memory by using mnemonic strategies which ask witnesses to think about what happened and encourage them to make as many retrieval attempts as possible. However, no known study has experimentally examined whether (or not) the CI superiority effect is something more than merely asking a witness to retrieve information four times. The aim of this study was to compare the recall obtained by means of the CI - in which mnemonics are used - to that obtained as a result of asking subjects to make a multiple free recall task - without using mnemonics - in a single interview session. It was expected that significant differences would still exist. Results confirmed this hypothesis.     

Can someone fabricate verifiable details when planning in advance? It all depends on the crime scenario

In the current study we examined the effect of having the opportunity to plan an alibi in advance on the suitability of the verifiability approach in two crime scenarios that differed in their opportunity to carry out innocent activities at the time of the crime. One hundred and two participants imagined being involved in stealing money either from a café at a time when it was open (allows innocent activities) or from a bank at a time when it was closed (does not allow innocent activities). We asked participants about their strategies and difficulties in preparing a verifiable alibi in advance, and to write down their prepared alibis. The participants in both groups found this task difficult and did not differ in the difficulties they experienced, however they differed in their strategies (plans to include true witnesses) and actual success in the task. Participants in the Café scenario provided 30% more verifiable details than the participants in the Bank scenario. Strategies and difficulties mentioned by the participants are presented in the paper, and the implications of the study's results on the application of the verifiability approach are discussed.     

Detecting truth in suspect interviews: the effect of use of evidence (early and gradual) and time delay on Criteria-Based Content Analysis,Reality Monitoring and inconsistency within suspect statements

The strategic use of evidence in interviews with suspects has been shown to increase the ability of interviewers to accurately and consistently distinguish truthful from deceptive accounts. The present study considers the effect of early and gradual revelation of evidence by the interviewer, and the effect of shorter and longer delay on the verbal quality of truth-teller and liar statements within a mock crime paradigm. It was hypothesised that gradual disclosure of evidence (1) in terms of inconsistencies (a) within statements and (b) between statements and such evidence and (2) of the criteria of Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) and of Reality Monitoring (RM) would emphasise differences in the verbal quality of truth-teller and liar statements. Forty-two high school students took part in the study. The use of statement-evidence and within-statement inconsistency appears to be a robust cue to deception across interview style and delay. This indicates that gradual disclosure in interviews may increase interviewer accuracy in veracity decisions by eliciting statement inconsistencies. However, gradual revelation and delay affected the ability of CBCA and RM criteria to distinguish the veracity of suspect statements.     

Can order of general and specific memory prompts help children to recall an instance of a repeated event that was different from the others?

Does asking about the general event before asking about a specific instance help children to report details of a particular instance of a repeated event that was different from the others? Six- to eight-year-old children either experienced or heard stories about a magic show. An equal number of children had one, four, or six similar experiences. One week later, half of the children were asked to describe what happens during the magic shows and then what happened during the target experience and half were asked what happened followed by what happens. Following free recall, all children were asked cued recall questions about the target instance. Memory reports were more complete when the general prompt was administered first than when it was administered second. Implications for the forensic interviewing of children who allege repeated abuse are discussed.     

Drug Globalization: Eventual Legalization of Beer in Iceland and Marihuana Decriminalization in the USA

This article discusses whether different motivations for and perceptions of the police role, either as ‘law and order‐oriented thrill‐seekers’ or as ‘social workers’ lead officers to adopt different approaches towards the public. The first category police rank‐and‐file officers' desire for action and excitement, causing them to perceive policing as a mission, also causes them to have a distorted view of reality whereby they perceive members of the public either as significant adversaries or as insignificant ones. For them, ‘real police work’ means chasing and catching villains, and this delusional picture of what policing is may lead them to enlarge and redefine ‘insignificant criminals’ and thus perceive them as ‘villains’ who merit and justify police targeting. However, as these insignificant criminals—beggars, drug addicts, vagrants, ethnic minority youths, and drunks—are not perceived as actually ‘significant adversaries’, the targeting of and encounters with them also produce fatigue in police officers as these activities fail to comply with many police officers' desire to ‘catch the villain’, and the encounters are repetitive and tedious. Police fatigue and stereotyping may entail cynicism due to the ways in which some groups respond to police targeting, such as accusing the police of racism or threatening them with complaints. It is argued that the first type of police officers to a larger degree will experience fatigue and cynicism than the second type of officers—‘the social workers’—who are motivated by a will to ‘help others’, and who receive more rewarding responses from the public.     

欧陆上市公司关联交易治理机制比较

上市公司关联交易治理重点因股权结构而异,英美等少数股权分散国家为管理层,包括我国在内的多数股权集中国家则为控制股东。鉴于控制股东所主导的关联交易具有利益冲突与经营效率的双重属性,欧陆国家的法律对其采取兴利除弊的治理策略。通过董事会和监事会审批机制确保决策效率,依靠司法任命特别检查人和派生诉讼机制维护少数股东权益,在公司集团中引入特别规则以提升公司价值,实现了公平与效率的动态平衡,值得我国借鉴。     

着眼于“透明”的网络问诘与能动回应——基于司法公信力提高的时代分析

不断提高司法公信力是建设社会主义法治国家的基本要求,网络民意、网络审判、网络法治成为现代化背景下影响司法场域输出司法正义的重要因素。能动回应网络时代对司法公信的质疑,从而提高司法公信力是司法体制内外的共同任务。案情公开、证据公开、判决理由公开、允许网络法治存在、为司法松绑是司法秩序摆脱"寻租性"监督,实现司法秩序独立,回归司法原点,提高司法公信能动回应网络问诘的有效措施。     

论审判阶段羁押必要性审查工作机制的构建

随着2013年1月1日新刑事诉讼法的施行,检察机关的羁押必要性审查职能在审判阶段发挥着越来越重要的作用。然而,现阶段我国检察机关内部尚无明确统一的羁押必要性审查工作机制,从而限制了羁押必要性审查制度在审判阶段的适用。基于此,文章在对现阶段存在问题进行分析的基础上,从平衡审查主体职能分工、明确审查标准、建立审查工作流程及完善配套措施等方面进行论述,以期实现对检察机关在审判阶段羁押必要性审查工作机制的构建。     

民事虚假诉讼的法律规制

民事虚假诉讼不仅侵犯了第三人的合法权益,而且损害了审判权威和司法公信力,浪费了司法资源。当前立法机关需要按照渐进性的原则积极推动法律修改和完善,以实现对虚假诉讼的法律规制,特别是对严重虚假诉讼行为的刑法规制。