NCJ Number
166926
Journal
Psychology, Crime & Law Volume: 2 Issue: 3 Dated: (1996) Pages: 231-248
Date Published
1996
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Using real-life police officers, witnesses, and crime victims in England, this study explored the relative merit of three investigative interviewing training methods.
Abstract
Police personnel with 5 or more years of experience were trained using the enhanced cognitive interview (CI) technique, the conversational management (CM) technique, or a combination of both. The effectiveness of these forms of training was compared with an untrained group of police officers in a before-and-after design. The nature and behavior of interviewers and the amount of relevant information elicited before and after training were examined. The three training groups and the untrained control group each had 28 police officers. Results demonstrated the interview behavior of CI-only trained police officers changed much more than the other trained groups and the untrained group between pre- and post-training phases. The study offered support for the CI's validity as a powerful investigative interviewing technique for eliciting potentially relevant information. The CI technique was superior to both CM and the combination of CI and CM. The authors conclude the marked commonality found in questioning patterns offers insights into standard police interviews. 28 references and 8 tables