No abstract

Recently, several studies in Western countries have experimentally investigated interviewing techniques designed to elicit true confessions from guilty suspects and to minimize false confessions by innocent suspects. This study was the first to explore these issues in Japan, with special focus on a rapport-based approach using a modified version of the experimental paradigm devised by Russano, Meissner, Narchet, and Kassin (2005). Experienced police officers interviewed 234 20-to 50-year-old male participants to ascertain whether they broke an experimental rule during a problem-solving session. Among 114 guilty participants (i.e., those who broke the experimental rule), 74 confessed to cheating, whereas none of the innocent participants (i.e., those who did not break the rule even though a confederate attempted to get them to do so) falsely confessed. Further analyses showed that guilty participants who were interviewed using a relationship-focused approach that emphasized rapport building were more likely to confess than those in a control condition; the presence of a camera had no effect on the difference between the 2 interview conditions. Furthermore, there were no significant interviewing style differences in the participants' perceptions of fairness or suggestiveness.

Although many studies have been conducted on behavioral profiling of homicide offenders, none of these have empirically shown that this technique has scientific validity and solid accuracy. Based on data from 839 Japanese homicide cases, we constructed multivariate logistic regression models to infer offenders' characteristics of sex, age, stranger offender, criminal record, single offender, member of organized crime, and residential area. We evaluated validity with a tenfold cross-validation procedure and a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The results indicated that the area under the ROC curve ranged from .70 to .87, suggesting moderate and sufficient accuracy. Such a multivariate approach would be useful to reduce costs and minimize errors in the early stages of an investigation, especially for jurisdictions that possess large homicide databases. He has focused on the use of quantitative research in police psychology. His current research topics include driving behavior under the influence of alcohol, traumatized crime victims, and offender profiling.Kazumi Watanabe, PhD, is the current head of the Investigation Support Section at the NRIPS. Her interests include the role of psychological and psychiatric research in police investigations. She is currently investigating the behavioral characteristics of serial and mass murderers, recidivism of homicide offenders, and the behavioral consistency of serial sex crimes.Kaeko Yokota is a senior researcher in the Investigation Support Section at the NRIPS. She earned her MSc and PhD degrees in investigative psychology from the University of Liverpool. Her research interests include risk assessment of hostage incidents, behavioral consistency of residential burglars, and case linkage of violent, serial crimes.hiroki Kuraishi, MA, is a researcher in the Investigation Support Section at the NRIPS. Before joining the NRIPS, he worked in the Shiga Prefectural Police Headquarters as a forensic psychologist. His current research focus is on the decisionmaking process of residential burglars from the perspective of cognitive psychology.Mamoru suzuki, MA, is a senior researcher in the Crime Prevention Section at the NRIPS. He is interested in psychological research on crime prevention and police investigations. His interests include the cognitive process of fraud victimization, the sexual arousal of sex offenders, and the geographic analysis of serial crimes.taeko Wachi, MPhil, is a senior researcher in the Investigation Support Section at the NRIPS. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. The main focus of her current research is on police interviewing and interrogation techniques. She has also investigated the behavioral characteristics of serial arsonists.Yusuke otsuka, MA, is a researcher in the Investigation Support Section at the NRIPS. He is also attached to the Criminal Investigation Bureau of the National Police Agency of Japan. His research interests include the modi operandi of sex crimes, offender characteristics of extortion, a...

This study examines the effects of neighbourhood attractiveness on the residential burglar's crime location choice process using a discrete choice model. We show that past crime data are an important index of a neighbourhood's attractiveness and can be combined with other attractiveness indices adapted from previous studies. We used data from 369 solved cases committed by 70 offenders and related these data to 1,134 areas (500 m grid cells) in Sendai City, Japan. The results showed that residential burglars were attracted to the following potential locations for crimes: (a) areas in proximity to his or her own residence;(b) areas having many or at least a higher proportion of residential burglaries in the past; (c) areas having many residential units; and (d) areas having a higher proportion of single-family dwellings. The results confirm the validity of past crime data as an index of a neighbourhood's attractiveness for residential burglary.

This study aimed to examine police officers' accuracy in classifying guilty and innocent participants using 3 interviewing styles (evidence-focused, relationship-focused, and control). In a modified version of Russano, Meissner, Narchet, and Kassin's (2005) deception paradigm, participants who had violated a rule (i.e., cheating while solving problems) were considered guilty, whereas those who had followed the rule were considered innocent. After interviewing 234 adult men, 11 experienced male police officers accurately classified over 90% of them as guilty or innocent. Of 160 participants who did not admit to cheating, 140 (87.5%) were correctly classified. There was no statistically significant relationship between interviewing style and police officers' identifications of guilty deniers (i.e., liars) and innocent deniers (truth tellers). However, interviewers were more likely to believe guilty deniers in the evidencefocused condition, and they tended to believe innocent deniers in the relationship-focused condition. These findings suggest that the ability to detect deception might be influenced by interviewing style.