Research On The Interviewing Of Suspects
12 March 2013
Details
- Date: Tuesday 12 March
- Time: 6pm
- Venue: The Courtroom (OL2) Kedleston Road site, DE22 1GB.
Lecturer of Criminal Investigation, Professor Ray Bull, will discuss new approaches to the interviewing of suspects of crime and will look at recent research and developments in this fascinating area of law and criminology and criminal investigation.
Around the world the traditional method that has been used with suspects is to interrogate them using an accusatory style, even at the start of the interrogation. Recent research in several countries consistently demonstrates that a noteworthy proportion of guilty suspects have already decided to confess before the interview commences, and thus this traditional approach may be 'seen' to work for them. For other suspects, however, the available research suggests that such an approach is rarely effective.
Thus, a radically different approach began to be adopted 20 years ago in England and Wales, which has now been adopted elsewhere (e.g. in Australia, New Zealand and Norway among others). Instead of the seeking of confessions (which may provide very little information with which to confirm their validity), this 'new' approach is designed to assist suspects to provide as much relevant information as possible, the contents of which can be verified or challenged.
Research and developments on how best to elicit such information and when best to disclose to suspects information known to the investigators will be described in Professor Bull's talk
