Collection and Use of Evidence from Witnesses and Suspects - Memon & Higham

what is PACE?

police and criminal evidence act -1998

• limits on when an interview can take place

• required the interview is recorded in triplicate simultaneously

• doesn’t apply if held under the Terrorism Act

Inbau et al - The Reid Nine Steps of Interrogation in Brief

He was opposed to the Miranda rights as he felt they put the suspect above that of the victim and society

Stages of interrogation:

1. direct confrontation

2. chance to shift blame

3. interruption of denial of guilt

4. dismissal of alibis

5. eye contact/first name

6. offer alternatives

7. give 2 choices that both suggest guilt

8. admission of guilt in front of witnesses

9. obtain signed confession

Can lead to false confessions

Gudjonsson et al (1990) “A Case of False Confession”

often believed police are more worries about false negatives

• 17 year old accused of the murder of 2 elderly women - battered to death, savings stolen, signs of sexual assault,

• arrested due to spending more and not having an alibi

• no forensic evidence

• denied a solicitor, interview for over 14 hours without break, accused him of being sexually impotent, eventually confessed

• retracted confession after having signed but ultimately convicted

• later released after another suspect pleaded guilty to similar crimes and was linked

Analysis of interview showed leading and accusatory questions

Subject’s psychiatric analysis in prison showed an IQ of 94 and a high ‘suggestibilty’ score

Gudjonsson et al’s 4 factors surrounding confession?

1. suspect - false confessions more likely from vulnerable people - v young/old, low IQ, mental disorder

2. arrest - false confessions more likely in the case of sudden/violent arrest or long periods of interrogation or occurring at night

3. mental/physical state - confession are unreliable if suspect is stressed, anxious, ill or intoxicated

4. interrogation - coercive, biased or leading tactics can encourage vulnerable suspects to confess

3 types of false confession?

voluntary - they believe they have done it or do so to protect someone else

coerced-internalised - believes they have done it because the police persuades them they have

coerced-complaint - forced admittance due to pressure

cognitive processes involved in giving information to the police?

Acquisition - taking in information (Duncan, 1976)

Retention - ability to hold on to information (Malpass and Devine, 1981)

Retrieval - memory (Loftus and Palmer, 1974)

Duncan (1976)?

video of 2 men arguing, one white and one black

manipulated which man pushed the other

asked participants to describe the event

if the aggressor was white 67% said he was plating around, however if he was black 70% said he was being violent

(Temporal validity?)

Malpass and Devine (1981)?

shown a video of a staged act of vandalism and then asked to recall from a photo line up

after 3 days there was 83% accuracy

after 3 months there was 36% accuracy

Loftus and Palmer (1974)?

perception of the event and information presented afterwards affects the memory of the event

standard interviews?

interviews done historically with very little training

a period of free recall followed by specific questions

4 stages:

• orientation

• listening

• q&a

• advice

cognitive interviews - Geiselman et al (1985)?

assumes that if the context of the crime can be recreated for the eyewitness they will be able to retrieve more information

4 stages:

1. reinstate the context - encourage the witness to think about the whole situation

2. recall events in reverse order - prevents the effect of the witness tiring

3. report everything they can remember

4. describe the events from someone else’s perspective

Fisher et al?

16 detectives - at least 5 yrs experience

88 interviews over 4 months

1 group trained for CI (x4 60m sessions) and one not

then recorded interviews for another 7 months

CI - 47% more information cf pre-training, 63% more cf untrained

94% of information was corroborated

Memon et al (1996) components?

1. Context Reinstatement

2. Change perspective

3. change order

4. control - “try harder”

interviewed children ages 5-8 using one of the components and saw none to be more effective than they other

Milne (1997)?

a full CI produces more recall cf single component excepting context reinstatement

Memon and Higham (1998) research method?

reviews the CI on 4 themes:

1. effectiveness of components

2. relationship between CI and other interview methods

3. different measures of memory performance

4. effect of training quality

Memon and Higham (1998) - Components of the CI?

some evidence to suggest that context reinstatement is a technique that witnesses used to remember events - some research has show it increases memory recalled

reporting everything may yield information valuable to putting together information from different witnesses

recall from a variety of perspectives doesn't appear to not increase information recalled more than any other techniques

making retrieval attempts from different start points hasn’t been shown to increase more information than a second retrieval attempt

Memon and Higham (1998) - Isolating the Effective Components of the CI?

Memon (1996) and Milne (1997)

Memon and Higham (1998) - the Enhanced CI

combines the four cognitive techniques with strategies for improving interviewer-witness communication

e.g., rapport building, transferring power to the witness, not interrupting a witness etc

in conjunction with context reinstatement the witness is asked to produce a mental image of the situation however this is shown to lead to an increase in false reports as they are more likely to confuse imagined events with experienced events

contextual reinstatement seems to be the only effective cognitive technique employed with the CI

Memon and Higham (1998) - Comparison Interviews?

Standard Interview:

• CI removed undesirable elements such as rapid-fire questions,

• not a good comparison as the standard interview is too different

• the additional time dedicated to developing interview style may be the benefit of CI

• shows the efficacy of CI as a whole

Guided Memory Interview:

• Malpass and Devine found that recognition accuracy was increased with GMI

• similar to CI but common components are only effective in increasing recognition accuracy in certain conditions

• both have high levels of interviewer variables

• additional context cues shown to be useful only after the memory has started to fade

Structured Interview:

• in SI interviewers build rapport, use good questioning techniques etc

• contextual reinstatement not used - volume of info in CI therefore higher although similar accuracy

• good control to compare to CI

Memon and Higham (1998) - Quality of Training?

early CI, training wasn’t standardised

the enhanced CI requires more from the interviewer - not just reading out instructions

suggest a 2 day training programme for all undertaking CI, and directing training towards those identified as being good interviewers

Memon and Higham (1998) - Conclusions?

• research remains inconclusive

• need for research into effects on memory, how elements work

• interviewers differ in their ability and motivation to conduct a good interview

ECI phases?

1. Greet and personalise

2. explain aims

3. initiate free report

4. questioning

5. varied and extensive retrieval

6. investigative important questioning

7. summary

8. closure

9. evaluation