Investigative interviewing is a non-

coercive Coercion involves compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner through the use of threats, including threats to use force against that party. It involves a set of forceful actions which violate the free will of an individual in order to in ...

method for questioning victims, witnesses and suspects of crimes. Generally, investigative interviewing "involves eliciting a detailed and accurate account of an event or situation from a person to assist

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

". This interviewing technique is ethical and research based, and it stimulates safe and effective gathering of evidence. The goal of an investigative interview is to obtain accurate, reliable and actionable information. The method aims at maximising the likelihood of obtaining relevant information and minimise the risks of contaminating evidence obtained in

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

questioning. The method has been described as a tool for mitigating the use of

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons including corporal punishment, punishment, forced confession, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimid ...

, coercion and psychological manipulation, and for averting

forced confessions A forced confession is a confession obtained from a suspect or a prisoner by means of torture (including enhanced interrogation techniques) or other forms of duress. Depending on the level of coercion used, a forced confession is not valid in rev ...

and errors of justice leading to wrongful convictions and

miscarriages of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when an unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Innocent p ...

. The term investigative interviewing was introduced in the UK in the early 1990s to represent a shift in police interviewing away from a

confession A confession is a statement – made by a person or by a group of people – acknowledging some personal fact that the person (or the group) would ostensibly prefer to keep hidden. The term presumes that the speaker is providing information that ...

oriented approach and towards evidence gathering. Traditionally, the main aim of an

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

was to obtain a confession from a suspect in order to secure a conviction. Thus, investigative interviewing contrasts pervasive interrogations techniques aimed at making the suspect break down and confess. The stark difference between these two approaches to police interviewing has led some authors to argue that the term "interrogation" should be scrapped altogether as it is inherently coercive and aimed at obtaining a confession. Much of the scientific base of investigative interviewing stems from

social psychology Social psychology is the methodical study of how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Although studying many of the same substantive topics as its counterpart in the field ...

and

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of human mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, whi ...

, including studies of human

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembe ...

. The method aims at mitigating the effects of inherent human fallacies and

cognitive biases A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment. Individuals create their own "subjective reality" from their perception of the input. An individual's construction of reality, not the objective input, ...

such as

suggestibility Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others. One may fill in gaps in certain memories with false information given by another when recalling a scenario or moment. Suggestibility uses cues to disto ...

confirmation bias Confirmation bias (also confirmatory bias, myside bias, or congeniality bias) is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or Value (ethics and social sciences), val ...

priming Priming may refer to: * Priming (agriculture), a form of seed planting preparation, in which seeds are soaked before planting * Priming (immunology), a process occurring when a specific antigen is presented to naive lymphocytes causing them to d ...

and

false memories In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not actually happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation ...

. In order to conduct a successful interview the interviewer needs to be able to (1) create good

rapport Rapport ( ; ) is a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned are "in sync" with each other, understand each other's feelings or ideas, and communicate smoothly. The word derives from the French language, French ve ...

with the interviewee, (2) describe the purpose of the interview, (3) ask

open-ended question An open-ended question is a question that cannot be answered with a "yes" or "no" response, or with a static response. Open-ended questions are phrased as a statement which requires a longer answer. They can be compared to closed-ended questions wh ...

s, and (4) be willing to explore alternative

hypotheses A hypothesis (: hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. A scientific method, scientific hypothesis must be based on observations and make a testable and reproducible prediction about reality, in a process beginning with an educ ...

. Before any probing questions are asked, the interviewees are encouraged to give their free, uninterrupted account. In the interim report dated 5 August 2016 to the UN General Assembly of the special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez, the investigative interviewing method is presented at length as an example of best practice. Since the implementation of cognitive interviewing, this technique has undergone significant changes. These changes have enhanced the process of memory recall in various law enforcement investigations. (1) The development of structured protocols has made cognitive interviews more systematic. Beyond the rapport building, and open-ended questions, it encourages the witness to visualize the event enhancing memory recall. This structure helps reduce bias and increases the reliability of the information gathered. (2) Advancements in recording technology have allowed interviews to be documented more accurately. Video and audio recordings provide a reliable reference that can be reviewed later for analysis, ensuring that the details are not lost or misinterpreted. (3) Cognitive interview techniques have evolved for use with different populations, including children and individuals with cognitive impairments. Tailoring the approach to meet the needs of various witnesses ensures that all voices can be heard effectively. (4) Enhanced training programs for law enforcement personnel have been developed to ensure that interviewers are skilled in applying cognitive interview techniques. Standardized training helps maintain a high level of competency across different departments and regions. These improvements have contributed to making cognitive interviews a more effective tool in gathering accurate eyewitness testimonies, ultimately leading to better outcomes in investigations.

By country

United Kingdom

The PEACE model (Preparation and Planning, Engage and Explain, Account, Closure and Evaluate) for police interviewing was developed in the United Kingdom in response to a number of documented forced confessions and associated wrongful convictions in the 1980s and 1990s. Most notable were the cases associated with the conflict (

the Troubles The Troubles () were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted for about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it began in the late 1960s and is usually deemed t ...

) in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, and

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

, such as the

Birmingham Six The Birmingham Six were six men from Northern Ireland who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and q ...

and

Guildford Four The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were two groups of people, mostly Northern Irish, who were wrongly convicted in English courts in 1975 and 1976 of the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 and the Woolwich pub bombing of 7 November 1974 ...

-cases.

Norway

Investigative interviewing was adapted by the Norwegian police in 2001. The acronym used for the training programme for the Norwegian police is KREATIV (or CREATIVE in English) and is composed of phrases reflecting the values and principles upon which the method is based. These are; Communication; Rule of Law; Ethics and empathy; Active awareness; Trust through openness/transparency; and Information. The "V" stands for Science ("Vitenskap" in Norwegian, "Wissenschaft" in German), referring to the method's foundation in research. Professor

Ray Bull Ray Bull is a British psychologist and emeritus professor of forensic psychology at the University of Leicester. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Portsmouth and a part-time professor of criminal investigation at the Universi ...

and DCI David Murthwaite (Merseyside Police) were brought from the UK to Norway to help train the trainers and initiate the programme. A module on how and when evidence should be disclosed during interviews with suspects was included, distinguishing it from the PEACE method.

New Zealand

The New Zealand Police published a practical tool and a compilation of literature on investigative interviewing in 2005 and underwent reforms to investigative interviewing both in policy and practice from 2007.

References

{{reflist Interrogations Law enforcement