Training Sexual Crime Investigators to Get the “Whole Story”
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Training sexual crime investigators to get the “Whole Story” By Patrick Tidmarsh MA (Crim) Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Deakin University Date August 2016 ii “Because police are the ‘gate-keepers’ to the criminal justice system, the way they respond to people who report sexual assault is vitally important.” Victorian Law Reform Commission, 2004 – xxii iv Acknowledgements There are a lot of people I would like to thank for their help and inspiration, in developing Whole Story, the research we have conducted, and this thesis. Firstly, I want to acknowledge all the men and women who come to SOCITs because they want to help the victims of sexual crime. I am constantly inspired by your strength and dedication. You put a lot of good back into the world. I would like to thank Martine Powell, without whom this research would never have begun. Thanks also for all the support you gave me, to keep pursuing this idea and its potential. Many, many thanks must also go to Stefanie Sharman, without whom this research would never have been completed. Thank you for helping me to keep going, and for all your humorous and incisive feedback. I would like to thank my two partners in the SOCIT Specialist Development Unit, Mark Barnett and Tony Breen. An idea is only as good as the people who make it happen. I am very proud of what we have all achieved, even though we all know that we’re not finished yet! Thanks also to all the people who worked with us in the Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Team, helping to develop Whole Story, and assisting in this research: Rod Jouning, Rena de Francesco, Natasha Habjan, Sarah Alderman and Elly Alijah. I would like to thank Christine Paterson and Carol Lomas-Fisher from the Victoria Police library. Your help has been invaluable. Similarly, thanks to Carolyn McCoy and her colleagues at the Victoria Police transcription service. Your help, too, was invaluable. Thank you to Elli Darwinkel and Gemma Hamilton for your help with the data and the drafts. To Asha, Natalia, Marina and Madeleine. Whenever I think of you all I am motivated to keep going. We are a long way from a safe world for girls and women. And finally to Jacqui, who never fails to lift my spirits and make me believe in the work we are both doing. I couldn’t have done any of this without you. v Table of Contents Deakin University Candidate declaration _________________________________ iii Acknowledgements ___________________________________________________ iv Table of Contents ____________________________________________________ v List of Tables ______________________________________________________ viii List of Figures ______________________________________________________ ix Abstract ___________________________________________________________ x Chapter 1: The International Problem ____________________________________ 1 1.1 The prevalence of sexual offending _________________________________ 1 1.2 Reporting of sexual offending _____________________________________ 3 1.3 False reporting _________________________________________________ 6 1.4 Conviction Rates _______________________________________________ 7 1.5 Attrition ______________________________________________________ 8 1.6 Sexual offending myths and misconceptions _________________________ 12 1.7 The Lack of specialism __________________________________________ 16 1.8 Jurors and adversarial justice _____________________________________ 17 1.9 Chapter summary ______________________________________________ 19 Chapter 2: Establishing Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Investigation Teams ___ 20 2.1 Before the VLRC (2004) report ___________________________________ 20 2.2 The VLRC (2004) Report ________________________________________ 21 2.3 The Sexual Offence and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) Model _ 23 2.4 Specialism and Training _________________________________________ 24 2.5 Chapter summary ______________________________________________ 25 Chapter 3: The Core Challenges of Sexual Crime Investigation _______________ 26 3.1 Investigator knowledge and attitudes _______________________________ 26 3.3 Chapter summary ______________________________________________ 38 Chapter 4: Understanding Sexual Offending: the Creation of Counter-Intuitive Behaviour _________________________________________________________ 39 4.1 Sexual offending is a relationship-based crime _______________________ 39 4.2 Grooming and counter-intuitive behaviour __________________________ 40 4.3 Implicit Theory model of offending behaviour _______________________ 42 vi 4.4 Chapter summary ______________________________________________ 45 Chapter 5: The Rationale for, and Development of, Whole Story ______________ 46 5.1 The rationale for Whole Story training _____________________________ 46 5.2 The importance of ‘stories’ ______________________________________ 47 5.3 Creating the Whole Story ________________________________________ 51 5.4 Chapter summary ______________________________________________ 57 Chapter 6: Training _________________________________________________ 58 6.1 The Development and Maintenance of Knowledge, Attitudes and Skills. __ 58 6.2 The reform process in Victoria post-VLRC __________________________ 60 6.3 SOCIT/VARE Course content ____________________________________ 60 6.4 Related courses now utilising Whole Story methodology _______________ 65 6.5 Chapter summary ______________________________________________ 66 6.6 The Current Thesis _____________________________________________ 66 Chapter 7: Investigator Qualities and Field Adherence to Training Principles ___ 70 7.1 Aims and hypothesis ___________________________________________ 70 7.2 Method ______________________________________________________ 71 7.3 Results ______________________________________________________ 75 7.4 Discussion ___________________________________________________ 84 Chapter 8: Interview Planning - Using Relationship Detail to Plan for Suspect Interviews _________________________________________________________ 93 8.1 Aims and Hypotheses ___________________________________________ 94 8.2 Method ______________________________________________________ 94 8.3 Results ______________________________________________________ 97 8.4 Discussion ___________________________________________________ 99 Chapter 9: Studies 3A and 3B: Training in Whole Story Content and Narrative Interviewing ______________________________________________________ 102 9.1 Aim and hypotheses ___________________________________________ 102 9.2 Method _____________________________________________________ 103 9.3 Results _____________________________________________________ 106 9.4 Discussion __________________________________________________ 111 9.5 Study 3B ____________________________________________________ 113 9.6 Method _____________________________________________________ 113 vii 9.7 Results _____________________________________________________ 115 9.8 Discussion __________________________________________________ 119 Chapter 10: Investigator Attitudes _____________________________________ 123 10.1 Aims and hypotheses _________________________________________ 123 10.2 Method ____________________________________________________ 124 10.3 Results ____________________________________________________ 126 10.4 Discussion _________________________________________________ 132 Chapter 11: Overall Conclusions and Implications for Future Research _______ 135 11.1 Introduction and Rationale for the studies. ________________________ 135 11.3 Future directions _____________________________________________ 141 11.4 Whole Story: A final note _____________________________________ 146 References _______________________________________________________ 148 Appendix 1: Concept paper __________________________________________ 187 Appendix 2A: Course syllabus before SOCITs and Whole Story ______________ 199 Appendix 2B: Course Syllabus after SOCITs and Whole Story _______________ 202 Appendix 3A: Questionnaire about filmed scenarios _______________________ 206 Appendix 3B: Sample answers to questionnaire __________________________ 211 Appendix 4A: De-identified transcript for grooming exercise ________________ 216 Appendix 4B: Suggested answers for grooming exercise ___________________ 219 Appendix 5: Whole Story suspect interview plan template __________________ 222 Appendix 6: Investigator Confidence Questionnaire _______________________ 227 Appendix 7: Example Scenario from Mock Suspect Interviewing Exercises _____ 240 Appendix 8: Questionnaire for Study 1 – Investigator Qualities. _____________ 249 Appendix 9: Participant Consent Form for Study 2/Custodian of the Data. _____ 259 viii List of Tables Table 7.1. Five most frequently listed factors that investigators would tell colleagues about SOCIT work __________________________________________________ 76 Table 7.2. Mean agreement ratings before training, after training, and at follow-up _________________________________________________________________ 77 Table 7.3. Top three most and least important topics to be covered in specialist training courses ____________________________________________________ 78 Table 7.4. Five most frequently listed qualities needed in specialist sexual assault investigators _______________________________________________________ 79 Table 7.5. Mean agreement ratings before training, after training, and at follow-up _________________________________________________________________ 80 Table 7.6. Top five details to elicit from victims before