Sex offenders’ perceptions of the effectiveness and fairness of humanity, dominance, and displaying an understanding of cognitive distortions in police interviews: A vignette study

Abstract

Forty-three convicted sex offenders read each of four different offence vignettes that involved a man forcing a female victim into sex and the offender's subsequent police interview. The experimental manipulation involved giving participants each of four different scenarios concerning how the police interviewed the offender. These were interviews characterized by humanity, dominance, displaying an understanding of sex offenders' cognitive distortions, or a neutral, control interview. Participants were required to rate the interviews on a variety of dimensions, such as the offender's likelihood of confessing, and the fairness of the interview. Where participants were told the man had been interviewed with humanity and compassion, they rated the offender as more likely to confess and rated the interview as fairer than the other conditions. In contrast, participants rated the offender interviewed with a dominant approach as less likely to confess, and for this procedure to be less fair than the other conditions. Displaying an understanding of sex offenders' cognitive distortions appeared to have had no influence on perceived likelihood of confessions but was perceived to make the crime appear less serious.

The Impact of Question Type and Empathy on Police Interviews with Suspects of Homicide, Filicide and Child Sexual Abuse

“…The conclusion, at least in the present sample, is that across all three offence types, the use of appropriate question types appears to be more beneficial in eliciting a greater amount of relevant information than the use of empathy per se. Although research in this area is limited, there are two distinct strands emerging, with some focusing on either the offenders' perspective of the interview process (Holmberg & Christianson, 2002;Kebbell et al, 2006), the obtaining of confessions (Beauregard, Deslauriers-Varin, & St-Yves, 2010;Kebbell, Alison & Hurren, 2008), or both. The present authors would argue that, in line with the principles of ethical interviewing, the primary goal of an investigative interview is not to obtain a confession per se, rather, it is to obtain accurate, relevant and complete accounts to provide the investigation team with relevant information to enable them to proceed with their enquiry (Milne & Bull, 1999;Williamson, 1993).…”

Police interviews with suspected child sex offenders: does use of empathy and question type influence the amount of investigation relevant information obtained?

“…Research relating to interviews with suspected sex offenders is still very much in its infancy and the research that has been conducted has tended to focus upon the offenders' perspective of the interview process (Holmberg & Christianson, 2002;Kebbell et al, 2006;Kebbell, Alison, & Hurren, 2008), with very little being conducted on real-life interviews of offenders (but see Benneworth, 2007;Oxburgh et al, 2006). To our knowledge, the present study is the first that has used transcripts of actual interviews to examine whether empathy impacts on the amount of IRI obtained in interviews with suspected child sex offenders.…”

Interviewing High Value Detainees: Securing Cooperation and Disclosures

“…Interviews with 83 convicted offenders in Sweden and written surveys of 63 convicted sex and violent offenders in Australia revealed that detainees who were interrogated by interviewers whom they perceived to be empathetic and humane confessed to their crimes, whereas detainees who did not confess perceived their interviewer as more authoritarian, domineering, accusatory and judgmental (Holmberg & Christianson, ; Kebbell, Alison, Hurren, & Mazzerolle, ). Results of a written vignette study completed by 43 sex offenders indicated that when the interview style portrayed was procedurally fair and human, they perceived confessions as more likely than when it was procedurally unfair and domineering (Kebbell, Alison, & Hurren, ).…”