Police Ofﬁcers Perceptions of Interviews in Cases of Sexual Offences and Murder Involving

Police ofﬁcers’ perceptions of interviews in cases of sexual offences and murder involving children and adult victims

Gavin Oxburgha, James Ostb, Paul Morrisb and Julie Cherrymanb

aSchool of Psychology, Newcastle University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK; bDepartment of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK

This paper examines 90 UK police ofﬁcers’ perceptions of characteristics of interviews with suspects of rape and murder involving child and adult victims. Ofﬁcers rated their beliefs about how stressful they would ﬁnd such interviews, the importance of confessions, their likely emotional involvement and how much empathy they would show towards the suspect. Murder cases were reported to be more stressful than rape, and confessions were deemed to be less important for respondents compared to ‘other’ ofﬁcers. Ofﬁcers reported that they would become more emotionally involved in cases involving children, and they would show more empathy in murder cases than rape cases. Ofﬁcers were unable to provide clear and unambiguous deﬁnitions of ‘empathy’ or ‘sympathy’.

Note: This is a copy of the article published in Police Practice and Research (DOI: 10.1080/15614263.2013.849595). It is not the copy of record and, as such, may contain typographical or other minor errors not present in the published version.

Introduction

Research indicates that police ofﬁcers often adopt markedly different ‘styles’ when conducting interviews with suspects, and that their style often depends upon the type of crime a person is suspected of having committed (Holmberg, 2004). Two distinct styles are referred to in the recent literature, namely humane or dominant (see Holmberg & Christianson, 2002; Kebbell, Alison, Hurren, Mazerolle, 2010; Kebbell, Hurren, & Mazerolle, 2006). Dominant interviewing is characterised by aggressive and hostile interviewer behaviour, whereas humane interviewing is marked by a less confrontational, more empathic and respectful attitude by the interviewer.

There is much to suggest that the humane, empathic interviewing style is associated with more admissions of guilt per se and that sex offenders, in particular, may be more likely to confess when interviewers adopt this approach (Gudjonsson, 2006; Holmberg Christianson, 2002; Oxburgh, Williamson, Ost, 2006). Some child sex offenders/rapists may be more likely to confess if interviewers adopted a more ‘sensitive approach’ (Kassin Gudjonsson, 2004, p. 48). Hence, it appears that police interview- ing style is an important area of research because the manner in which an interviewer interacts with a suspected offender may be a signiﬁcant determinant of the outcome of a criminal investigation – in other words, some suspects may be more likely to confess to their crimes if treated humanely.

When obtained fairly, a confession from a suspected offender is powerful evidence against him/her and means that victims of such crimes will generally not have to

‘re-live’ their ordeal in court by giving evidence, but also means that a conviction for the suspected offender will invariably follow (Gudjonsson, 2006). However, researchers from Sweden and Australia have reported that the dominant approach was most common in interviews with suspected sex offenders, whereas the more friendly and co-operative humane style was more common in interviews with suspects of other major crimes (e.g. murder and other violent offences: Holmberg Christianson, 2002; Kebbell et al., 2006, 2010). That said, the literature pertaining to police ofﬁcers’ interviewing style as a function offence type is in its infancy, and there is a clear gap in knowledge concerning UK police ofﬁcers’ perceptions of interviewing sex offenders – in other words, whether they ‘treat’ sex offenders differently to other suspected offenders of seri- ous crimes during an interview, and if so, why that might be? The research reported here is a timely ﬁrst step towards that goal. Before we can improve interviewing techniques, and subsequent interview training, we need to understand police ofﬁcers’ perceptions of those interviews.

Police ofﬁcers’ interviewing skills

During the investigation of serious crime (e.g. sexual offences), ofﬁcers are often required to make sense of powerful and sometimes painful emotions, which may make the subsequent interviews more ‘difﬁcult’ and ‘stressful’ to conduct (see Oxburgh et al.,

2006; Oxburgh Ost, 2011). Indeed, Soukara, Bull, and Vrij (2002) found that UK police ofﬁcers reported interviews with suspects of child rape to be among the most dif- ﬁcult to conduct because the nature of the offence severely tested their social skills. Interestingly, however, many ofﬁcers reported that they believed the extent to which they were able to empathise, or show understanding in any way, often depended on whether the suspected offender admitted the offence. In other words, ofﬁcers only adopted a more empathic style once the suspect had confessed. Similarly, in a study by Hughes, Parker and Gallacher (1996), UK child protection ofﬁcers reported that the most challenging aspect of an investigation involving child sexual offences was interviewing the suspect, and that this category of offence presented ‘special difﬁculties’ (p. 26), which they felt their interview training did not adequately address.

Being ‘humane’ has been found to be a very low priority for police interviewers (Holmberg, 2004), as has empathy, regardless of whether they were interviewing victims or suspects; a ﬁnding that is likely to be exacerbated when the crimes are of a particularly serious nature. Indeed, more recent research indicates that police ofﬁcers ﬁnd it difﬁcult to adopt a sensitive or humane approach with interviewees accused of particular types of crimes (e.g. child rape: Oxburgh et al., 2006; Oxburgh Ost, 2011). Similarly, Cherryman and Bull (2001) found that although ofﬁcers recognised the importance of ‘compassion and empathy’, they rarely used them in interviews. They suggest it may be that police culture does not allow ofﬁcers to be self-critical and admit their own limitations or weaknesses. Police culture is made up of various inter- connecting beliefs, values and behaviours, which can make it very difﬁcult for ofﬁcers to think ‘outside the box’ as an individual (Loftus, 2010). Not unlike the Military, many police organisations still operate in a very hierarchical way, with no room for weakness (perceived or otherwise) amongst individual ofﬁcers (Milne Bull, 1999).

In sum, the aforementioned research concerning police interviewing reveals consistent ﬁndings, which suggests that, in general, police ofﬁcers: (i) ﬁnd it more difﬁcult to interview suspects of certain types of offences, in particular sex crimes; (ii) apparently have a propensity to adopt a more dominant interviewing style with some suspects, particularly sex offenders; and (iii) appreciate the usefulness of skills such as

compassion and empathy, but appear to use them infrequently. However, much of the research cited is in excess of 10 years old, and/or concerns police ofﬁcers from outside of the UK.

The present study

The present study utilised a questionnaire, which asked UK police ofﬁcers for their personal views, and the views they thought other police ofﬁcers ‘in general’1 would have in relation to interviews with suspects of rape and murder involving child and adult vic- tims. The ﬁrst aim was to establish how stressful ofﬁcers report such interviews to be. The second aim was to establish the importance of gaining a confession, with the third aim to establish how emotionally involved ofﬁcers would get during such interviews. The fourth aim was to establish how much empathy (if any) they would show to the suspect. Given that empathy is sometimes confused with sympathy (Eisenberg & Lennon, 1983; Shepherd, 2007) and psychological research suggesting that police interviewers may ﬁnd it more ‘difﬁcult’ to empathise with those suspected of certain crimes (e.g. Holmberg & Christianson, 2002; Kebbell et al., 2006, 2010; Oxburgh et al., 2006), the ﬁfth, explor- atory, aim of the present study was to establish if participating ofﬁcers understood the difference between empathy and sympathy. Finally, the sixth aim was to establish if respondents rated their own skills as higher than ‘other ofﬁcers’ in general – in other words, did respondents show a self-presentational bias (Cherryman Bull, 2001)?

It was hypothesised that participating ofﬁcers would report that: (i) interviews involving offences against children (rape or murder) were more stressful than those involving adults (rape or murder); (ii) confessions will be viewed as less important than

‘other ofﬁcers’; (iii) they become more emotionally involved in interviews about cases involving crimes against children than those involving crimes against adults; (iv) they would show the least amount of empathy in interviews with suspects of child rape, and; (v) they would show self-presentational biases, rating themselves more favourably than

‘other ofﬁcers’ (i.e. enhancement and perception bias).

Method

Design

The research was based on information obtained via a specially designed questionnaire, in which four scenarios were presented relating to mock crimes involving sexual offences and murder with adult and child victims. For the ﬁrst two analyses, 2 (victim: child vs. adult) × 2 (crime: rape vs. murder) × 2 (perspective: self vs. other) fully within subjects ANOVAs were conducted. For the last two analyses (based on ranked data), Friedman tests, with Bonferroni-corrected Wilcoxon post hoc analyses, were conducted. For each scenario, respondents were asked to rate how stressful they would ﬁnd the interview, and how important it would be to obtain a confession (both rated on a ﬁve- point Likert scale ranging from 1 being ‘not at all important’ to 5 being ‘very impor- tant’). They were then asked to rank the four cases in terms of how emotionally involved they would become in the case, and how much empathy they would show to the suspect. Respondents were also asked to rate (or rank) how they thought other ofﬁcers would respond using the same response options. In the ﬁnal section of the ques- tionnaire, ofﬁcers were asked to explain their understanding of the difference between empathy and sympathy.

The questionnaire was piloted on ﬁve police detectives serving in one metropolitan and one suburban police force within England. All respondents that took part in the

pilot study informed the lead author that the questionnaire was clear and unambiguous, thus no changes were made prior to the main study.

Respondents

Over 250 PEACE trained serving detectives from various Police Forces across England and Wales were contacted using convenience sampling, but fewer than half (N = 90) responded. There was no known selection bias and given that this is a sample of very busy professionals, such a response rate (36%) was deemed acceptable and higher than in other comparable studies (e.g. 20% in Cherryman Bull, 2001). In total, respondents were 58 male and 32 female detectives with an overall mean age of 41.47 years (range = 24–55; SE = .69) and a mean length of service of 16.56 years (range = 2–35, SE = .79). In accordance with the Professionalising the Investigation Programme (PIP) in England and Wales, all participating ofﬁcers had to be at least PIP level two2 PEACE trained and regularly employed on investigations that involved interviewing suspects of

sexual offences and murder (adult and child). PEACE is the mnemonic acronym given to the model of interviewing used in England and Wales and other countries: Planning and Preparation; Engage and Explain, Account; Closure, Evaluation) (e.g. Clarke & Milne, 2001; Clarke, Milne, Bull, 2011; Milne Bull, 1999).

From the total number of respondents, n = 41 (45.6%) were trained at PIP level two, and n = 49 (54.4%) were trained at PIP level 3 (lead investigators in cases of murder, rape, kidnap or crimes of similar complexity). All respondents had a minimum of 10 years experience in interviewing suspects of sexual offences and murder.

Materials

The ﬁrst section of the questionnaire asked respondents for demographic details and information about their interview experience and training. The second section comprised of four mock crime scenarios, developed to be realistic in nature and related to: (i) an adult male suspected of murdering another adult; (ii) an adult male suspected of murder- ing his own child; (iii) an adult male suspected of sexually assaulting another adult; and (iv) an adult male suspected of sexually assaulting a child. The order of the presentation of the scenarios was systematically varied across respondents to control for order effects. The wording in each of the four scenarios remained the same, with the exception of the alleged offence:

You have been required to interview [speciﬁc offence detailed here]. The incident occurred last night in your local town and you have one statement from a reliable witness which, although providing little information about the actual event, does place the suspect at the scene and, as such, you have sufﬁcient grounds under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (1984) to interview the suspect. There is no other evidence at this time.

Next, respondents were asked to provide ratings on the key dependent variables for them- selves and ‘other ofﬁcers’. Finally, respondents were asked to provide a brief written explanation of their understanding of the difference between ‘empathy’ and ‘sympathy’.

Procedure

Potential respondents were contacted directly by the lead author and asked to participate. Informed consent was obtained, anonymity ensured, and respondents were

either sent the questionnaire electronically or given the questionnaire by hand. Respondents were instructed to complete the questionnaire in private, with no assistance from friends or colleagues. The completed questionnaires were then returned to the lead author.

Results

Stressfulness of interviews

As shown in Figure 1, respondents consistently reported that they would ﬁnd all types of case less stressful to deal with (M = 2.42) than would ‘other ofﬁcers’ (M = 3.90), F1,89 = 244.37, p .005, ηp = .73, that murder cases were more stressful (M = 3.44) than rape cases (M = 2.87), F1,89 = 76.83, p .005, ηp = .46, and that cases involving child victims (M = 3.44) were more stressful than those involving adult victims (M = 2.88), F1,89 = 101.74, p .005, ηp = .53. This was qualiﬁed by a signiﬁcant victim x crime x perspective interaction, F1,89 = 10.66, p .005, ηp = .10. Although the overall stress ratings were lower for adult cases than child cases in general, respondents reported that the differences were more pronounced between cases of adult rape and murder, than between cases of child rape and murder, but only for ‘other ofﬁcers’. In other words, ‘other ofﬁcers’ were reported as being likely to ﬁnd cases of child rape comparatively more stressful than cases involving adults.

Importance of confessions

As shown in Figure 2, respondents consistently reported that they viewed obtaining a confession as signiﬁcantly less important (M = 2.38) than they believed ‘other ofﬁcers’ would (M = 3.80), F1,89 = 174,53, p .005, ηp = .66. Indeed, their own beliefs about the importance of obtaining a confession were largely low. They also reported, overall, that confessions were more important to obtain in cases of murder (M = 3.14) than rape (M = 3.04), F1,89 = 5.63, p < .05, ηp = .06, and in cases involving child victims (M = 3.17) than adult victims (M = 3.01), F1,89 = 13.82, p .005, ηp = .13. This was qualiﬁed by a signiﬁcant crime x perspective interaction showing that respondents believed that other ofﬁcers would think it was more important to obtain a confession in a murder case (M = 3.90) than in a rape case (M = 3.70) whereas they, themselves, would not (rape M = 2.38; murder M = 2.37), F1,89 = 11.97, p .005, ηp = .12.