Eyewitness Identification

1. Eyewitness Identification Interviewing By: Matt Sullivan

2. Eyewitness Interviewing • Is the process of obtaining information from witnesses or victims of a crime or event by police officers, detectives, lawyers, and psychologists.

3. Different Types of Interviewing • Standard Police Interview • Hypnosis • Cognitive Interview

4. Standard Police Interview • Involves narrative report of what happened • Then asks specific questions • Ask questions in a uniform fashion • Do little to facilitate recall • Poor social dynamics and communication

5. Problems with Police Interviews • Interrupt witness • Ask too many short-answer questions • Direct questions—rapid fire • Inappropriate sequence of questions • Ask questions in uniform fashion • Mello and Fisher (1996).

6. Other Problems Associated with Standard Police Interview • Negative phrasing • Leading questions • Inappropriate language • Judgmental comments • Have witnesses remain passive • Kiebbell and Wagstaff (1998).

7. Hypnotic Interviewing • Establish rapport with eyewitness • Explain what they are going to do • Then hypnotize • Age Regression • Television Technique

8. Hypnosis Positives • Hypnosis interviewers have good interpersonal skills • Interviewers also have clinical and psychology backgrounds • Use strategies similar to cognitive interview • “Relive,” or mentally recreate the event • Think about feelings • Go through event in different order

9. Hypnosis Negatives • Decrease in accuracy • False confidence in incorrect information • Increased suggestibility to leading questions • Misleading post-event information • Kebbell and Wagstaff (1998). • Hypnosis is looked down upon in legal system

10. Cognitive Interview • Cognitive interview aims to: • Improve social dynamics between eyewitness and interviewer • Improve both eyewitness and interviewers memory and other cognitive processes • Communication between the interviewer and eyewitness

11. Cognitive Interview • Developed by Geiselman et al (1984). • Retrieval mnemonics • Encourage using many retrieval paths • Recounting events in variety of orders • Reporting events from different perspectives • Attempt to increase overlap between encoding and retrieval contexts • Mentally reinstating environment and personal context • Reporting everything

12. Cognitive Interview • Memory retrieval • General cognition • Social dynamics • Communication

13. Other Characteristics of Cog Interview • Reinstate mental context, report everything • Recall events in different order and change perspectives • Using imagery and putting oneself in another's shoes—use with caution: may lead to memory distortion • Modified cognitive interview • Build rapport • Control is transferred to witness • Focused retrieval

14. Older Adults and Children • Social stigma—older peoples’ memory is poor. • Age related differences observed under weak cued recall conditions • Can be reduced or eliminated by appropriate retrieval cues, instructions, or retrieval operations • Police interviews poor on facilitating eyewitness recall • Cognitive interview better for older adults than younger participants

15. Older Adults and Children • Modified version of cognitive interview • Eliminated describing event from someone else's perspective • Also, did not have older adults perform story information recall. • Showed no difference between the ci and the ci-m for older participants • The study produced no overall age-related differences. Mello & Fisher (1995).

16. Children and Interviewing • Repeated interviews are common • Children become less accurate with repeated interviews • Change answers due to question repetition • During cross-examination—kids change answers • When a question is unanswerable—make stuff up • More likely to change answers to opinion questions • Krahenbuhl & Blades (2005).

17. Rapport • Eyewitness more likely to cooperate with someone who is more supportive • Creates potential to increase correct responses without increase in incorrect ones • Interviewer attitude can affect the quality and quantity of information • Collins and Lincoln (2002) • Show understanding, concern, personalize interview, listen actively. • National Institute of Justice

18. National Institute of JusticePre-Interview • Interview witness as soon as possible • Minimize distractions • Separate witnesses so they do not share stories • Develop rapport • Ask about prior contact with law enforcement • Do not volunteer specific information about case

19. Sequence of Conducting Interview • 1. attempt to minimize witness’s anxiety • 2. Establish and maintain rapport • 3. encourage witness to take an active role • 4. request a free narrative • 5. ask witness to mentally recreate events • 6. ask follow-up questions

20. During the Interview • Investigator should.. • Ask open ended questions • Avoid leading questions • Caution witness not to guess • Encourage witness to volunteer information and report all details, even if trivial • Avoid interruptions • Instruct them to not talk to other witnesses and avoid media

21. Resources • Collins, R., Lincoln, R., & Frank, R. (2002). The effect of Rapport in Forensic Interviewing. Psychiatry, Psych, &Law, 9, 69-78. • Geiselman et al. (1985). Eyewitness Memory Enhancement in the Police Interview: Cognitive Retrieval Mnemonics Versus Hypnosis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 70, 401-412. • Kebbell, M., & Wagstaff, G. (1998). Hypnotic Interviewing: The Best Way to Interview Eyewitnesses? Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 16, 115-129. • Mello, E., & Fisher, R. (1996). Enhancing Older Adult Eyewitness Memory with the Cognitive Interview. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 10, 403-417. • Wells, G., et al. (2000). From the Lab to the Police Station A Successful Aplication of Eyewitness Research. American Psychology, 55, 581-598. • National Institute of Justice. Interviewing, Eyewitness Evidence: A Trainer’s Manual for Law Enforcement.