Mediation and Negotiation

Who should conduct a pre-mediation interview?

Detective should be conducting the interview not something to delegate to a college or subordinate, learn about the conflict and establishing rapport.

Goals and Reason for a Pre-Mediation Interview?

1. Parties have an opportunity to express themselves

2. Informs the mediator about the conflict

3. Establish rapport between the mediator and parties

The Interview process

Goal: To prepare for and increase the chances of success for an upcoming

Desired Outcomes:

• An understanding of the conflict and back story

• Answer questions about the mediation

• Mutual trust and rapport to help everyone work together

Types of Questions

1. Open ended

2. Follow Up

3. Closed Ended

4. Probing directive and non directive

5. Hypothetical

6. Leading

4 Basic Directive Probes

• Elaboration

• Clarification

• Repetition

• Confrontation

3 Types of Non-Directive Probes

• Reflective Statements

• Neutral phrases

• Strategic silence

Elaboration

an assertive probe that asked the interviewee to amplify or provide additional details

Clarification

Used to obtain a further explanation when the answer is unclear

Repetition

Is used when an interviewee doesn’t hear or understand the question or is being evasive. The original question is repeated as exactly asked.

Cofrontation

Calls attention to an inconsistency, a misinterpretation or a contradiction in the answers provided

Reflective Statements

Also called summary statements, repeat to the interviewee an answers in order to indicate and ensure that the response have been accurately understood

Neutral Phrases

Demonstrate listening, indicate interest, and encourage the other person to continue talking

Strategic Silence

can be an extremely powerful probe in an interview, permitting the interviewee time for reflection, while prompting hem to continue talking

Controlling the interview

Control of the interview rest on the interviewer. An investigator never wants to lose control of the interview.

Content

Includes factors as quantity, accuracy, and believability of information.
• Both verbal and nonverbal language is used to convey content.
• Nonverbal messages can both reinforce or contradict the verbal ones

2 Dimensions of the interview process

1. Content - what is said

2. Relationship - how it is said

Relationship

Interviewer:
• The power to plan, schedule and execute the interview.
• Establishes the interactional relationship between the parties.
Interviewee:
• Less power than the interviewer.
• However, possesses information the interviewer is seeking. The power dynamic is based on the purpose, objective and type of interview, e.g. job, client, witness interview, etc.

Compound question

A single question that combines multiple questions into one.

Compound questions are problematic because:
1. They can confuse an interviewee
2. Could allow a person to avoid answering a critical question that needs to be answered.

Cognitive Interview

A structured method for helping witnesses recall more accurate detail about a crime without increasing error.

Introduced in 1985 by researchers

4 cognitive Interview Techniques

1. Reinstate the context

2. Report everything

3. change the order

4. change perspective

Reinstating the context

The interviewer has the witness mentally rebuild the scene before recall begins — sights, sounds, smells, weather, and their emotional
state at the time
• Taps into context-dependent memory: recall improves when the retrieval setting matches the original encoding conditions
• Witnesses are often asked to draw on all five senses to build the richest possible mental picture

Reporting Everything

Witnesses are encouraged to report every detail they remember, no matter how
small, fragmented, or seemingly irrelevant
• Memories are stored in interconnected webs — an obscure detail can act as the cue that triggers a far more important one
• Prevents witnesses from silently self- censoring information they've wrongly
decided doesn't matter

Recalling in a different order

Witnesses recall the event out of sequence, often working backward from the end, instead of telling it start to finish
• Chronological narration invites guessing: witnesses unconsciously fill gaps with what “should” have happened, based on a mental script
• Breaking the sequence disrupts that script and forces each fragment to be examined on its own

Changing perspective

The witness describes the incident as it would have looked from another person's position or the cashier
• Like reverse-order recall, this disrupts the witness's own narrative script by activating different retrieval cues
• Can recover hidden or implicit knowledge the witness holds but has never consciously acknowledged

Why the standard interview fell short

1. Constant interruptions

2. interviewer-driven format

3. Leading and negative phrasing

Complex Memory Traces

Memory traces contain many different kinds of information, not a single fixed
record
• A single memory can be accessed through multiple distinct retrieval cues
• If one cue fails to unlock a memory, a different cue might still succeed
• This is the basis for using four separate techniques rather than relying on just one

Encoding specificity

A retrieval cue is most effective when it closely matches the original context in which the memory was encoded
• Explains why recreating sensory and emotional context can unlock detail that direct questioning alone cannot
• The closer the recall setting matches the original event, the more accessible detail becomes

Memory as reconstructions

Memory is not a literal recording, it's an active, reconstructive process
• Recall pieces fragments together, often filled in using schemes
• Schemes can introduce errors when they replace genuine observation with
plausible assumption
• Reverse-order recall and perspective- changing both exist specifically to
counteract this

The misinformation Follow-up

A second experiment tested whether the cognitive interview leaves witnesses more resistant to misleading questions
• Researchers asked about a backpack that was never actually green: “Was the guy with the green backpack nervous?”
• Witnesses interviewed with the cognitive interview were the least likely of the three groups to be misled
• This suggested the technique's benefits extend beyond raw recall volume to resistance against distortion

Two Categories of Interview Styles

1. Adversarial methods

2. Information - gathering methods

Adversarial Approaches

Focus on obtaining confessions, typically in cases where there is already strong forensic evidence indicating a subject guilt, usually used closed ended questions and apply high pressure tactics to compel the subject to disclose more information.

Information Gathering Methods

Focus on gaining a comprehensive understanding of an incident, rather than extracting a specific piece of information, uses open ended questions worded neutrally, encourages the subject to provides a narrative in their own words.

Rapport Based Interview

interview techniques are non-confrontational and rely on empathy,
active listening, and trust-building to encourage cooperation and information
sharing during interviews.

Collaboration Technique

involve creating a sense of partnership between the interviewer and subject, encouraging cooperation through mutual exchange.

Context Manipulation

involves adjusting various factors of the interview environment, such as the physical setting or the investigator’s appearance, to set the tone for the interaction and subtly influence the subject

Evidence presentation

techniques involve revealing pieces of evidence (whether real
or fabricated) in a strategic manner, such as through timing and sequencing, to
encourage the subject to disclose more information

Emotion Provacation

techniques involve using verbal tactics to elicit strong emotional responses (such as fear, guilt, hope, or relief) to influence a subject’s perception of an event and increase the likelihood of a confession.

Confrontation-based

methods are typically used when evidence already suggests a subject’s culpability

The PEACCE model

P preparation

E engagement

A account

C clarification

C closure

E evaluation

Strategic Use of Evidence (SUE)

A technique designed to elicit an open-ended narrative from the subject followed by the strategic disclosures of evidence to confront and challenge their account

Maximization

involves scare tactics that aim to convince a subject of the hopelessness
of their position

Minimization

when an investigator essentially downplays the seriousness of an offense

Which Interview style had the least errors?

Researchers found 61% more errors with the cognitive interview than with standard interview, however the accuracy gained is larger