QUESTIONING SEQUENCES IN CANADIAN POLICE INTERVIEWS: CONSTRUCTING AND CONFIRMING THE COURSE OF EVENTS?

Abstract

A content analysis of 19 Canadian police interviews with adult witnesses revealed that several of the interviewing strategies used by officers ran counter to the recommendations in the literature. Specifically, interviewers interrupted the witness more than was necessary, rarely employed any cognitive techniques to enhance memory recall and asked far more closed than open-ended questions. Further, in terms of the sequencing of questions, a pattern emerged across interviews that suggested that officers first “help” the witness construct the event and then, through a rapid sequence of “yes/no” questions, seek to confirm the account. We argue that this pattern of questioning may suggest that officers are pursuing an assumed version of events and that exploring interviews from a sequencing perspective may prove beneficial in identifying possible biased versions of events.

Keywords:

• Interviewing Strategies
• Adult Witnesses
• Content Analysis
• Canadian

Notes

¹For the purposes of the present study, the term witness will hereafter be used to describe both an onlooker and victim of crime, as per Fisher (1995).