Police Interviewing

In the UK and elsewhere, police interviewing with victims, witnesses and suspects of crime is an integral part of the criminal justice process, intending to gather plentiful and accurate information from interviewees related to criminal investigations (Bull, Diversity in harmony—Insights from psychology: Proceedings of the 31st International Congress of Psychology, pp. 191–210, Wiley, 2018; College of Policing, Investigative interviewing, https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/investigations/investigative-interviewing/, 2013; Redlich et al., Applied Cognitive Psychology, 28, 817–828, 2014). As such, methods that facilitate good quality communication in these settings are imperative to meet this aim, and a great deal of research has been conducted in the past few decades to identify best practices in this setting. This chapter will explore these advancements and provide an overview of key police interviewing models, such as accusatorial and information-gathering approaches, and detail the psychological concepts that underpin these concepts, such as coercion, false confessions, rapport-building and empathy, and cognition. This chapter will also highlight the use of psychological tools within these approaches, such as methods of detecting deception and cognitive techniques that facilitate memory recall and communication (e.g., the cognitive interview). While the chapter has a strong focus on suspect interviewing, it will also discuss police interviewing practices with witnesses and victims.