The Psychological and Legal Principles of Investigative Interviewing a History
Introduction
This section provides the historical context for the development of investigative interviewing in the UK. High profile miscarriages of justice over the years have highlighted weaknesses and poor practice in police investigations; legislation and policies aimed at addressing some of these shortcomings are discussed here.
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Get Help Now!Why do we need Investigative Interviewing?
“The investigative task is the core aspect of policing today and what emerges from that core task is the key element of the ability to interview.” (Evans & Webb, 1993, p. 37)
No investigator would disagree with the above quote. Indeed the investigative interview is pivotal to the evidence gathering approach that underpins ethical police interviewing. However, where has investigative interviewing developed from? Why does the UK have a national model of interviewing (PEACE) which includes two distinct ways of interviewing individuals (conversation management and the cognitive interview) with both methods being developed by psychologists and having their roots in psychological research and theory? To understand the answers to these questions we must first look at a brief history of police interviewing in the UK to see how the UK government was forced, in part by bad publicity of police interviewing through celebrated miscarriages of justice, to be seen to be doing something to stop such injustices happening again. The government’s response was the creation of investigative interviewing and the PEACE model.
Unethical Behaviour by Interrogators: Judges’ Rules and the Development of PACE
The role of the police in questioning suspects has been changing and gradually evolving since Sir Robert Peel created the ‘new police’ in 1829. As the police began to get more involved in the questioning of suspects and presenting their findings to the courts, they found that some judges would accept evidence from them whereas others were not willing to do so. In 1906 the chief constable of Birmingham wrote to the Home Secretary seeking clarification of this anomalous position. As a result judges were asked to devise rules that would apply to the police when questioning people during an investigation. The Judges’ Rules were drawn up in 1912 by the judges and not by Parliament. They were revised and added to over the years, latterly by the executive (Home Office) and remained in force until they were replaced by the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984 and the Codes of Practice (Home Office Circular 89, 1978).
However, stated cases and research has indicated that the Judges’ Rules governing the questioning of suspects were ineffectual and that the skills exercised by police interviewers were often inadequate. This has led to the emergence of three inter-related areas of discussion:
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