No abstract

This study examined responses to a self-report questionnaire on interviewing techniques administered to 291 incoming adult male prison inmates across Japan who were convicted of murder, robbery, arson, rape, forcible indecency, or kidnapping. The questionnaire focused on interrogations that led to confessions. Four interview styles (Evidence-confrontational, Relationshipfocused, Undifferentiated-high, and Undifferentiated-low) were identified. For prisoners who had already decided to confess before their interrogation, interview styles had no effect on the tendency to confess. However, when prisoners were undecided about confessing or had previously decided to deny allegations, the Relationship-focused and Undifferentiated-high interview styles were associated with confessions. Furthermore, prisoners who experienced Relationship-focused interviews were more likely to provide previously undisclosed information to the police.

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.

Relationship between using urban green spaces and causality of the social and health states of the neighborhood residents.

No abstract