Establishing Rapport With Victims Is the Key to Effective Rape Investigations

• NCJ Number: 80023
• Journal: Police Chief Volume: 48 Issue: 11 Dated: (November 1981) Pages: 60-63
• Author(s): R Nelson
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 4 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A psychiatric social worker describes a training program developed to help the police officers in Woodridge, Ill., reduce their discomfort when interviewing rape victims and their resulting difficulty in collecting evidence and conducting a technical investigation.

Abstract

Police officers have found that their unease inhibits their ability to communicate with the victim, while victims accuse officers of being insensitive when they respond in a clinical, technical manner. The most usual form of training to deal with these problems consists of using groups, traditionally women's groups, to discuss the position of the rape victim and how the officer can better respond. This approach, which focuses only on the feelings of the rape victim, tends to increase police officers' discomfort, however. The alternative training developed for the Woodridge Police Department was based on needs identified by the department. The training was based on the belief that rapport must be established between the victim and the officer prior to any formal investigation and that this rapport is as essential to the victim as it is to the officer. The trainers also recognized that male officers' unease related to feelings of helplessness and guilt, while female officers often felt discomfort due to the fear that rape could also happen to them. The training consisted of two 4-hour workshops held 2 weeks apart. An experiential approach was emphasized. The first session asked men how they would feel if their wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, or grandmothers had been raped and how they might respond in a meaningful way. A film was used to stimulate discussion. Officers were encouraged to talk about their own feelings about rape and their personal struggles to establish rapport with other people. The second session used role playing concerning three diverse hypothetical situations involving alleged rape cases. Women trainers played the rape victims. The entire training program produced strongly positive comments from almost all of the participants. Although the approach used was much more costly and time-consuming than the traditional approach of inviting a speaker, its results justified the time and money used.