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Obtaining Initial Accounts from Victims and Witnesses

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Obtaining Initial Accounts from Victims and Witnesses Obtaining initial accounts from victims and witnesses A Rapid Evidence Assessment to support the development of College guidelines on obtaining initial accounts from victims and witnesses Version 1.0 Will Finn Abigail McNeill Fiona Mclean Obtaining initial accounts REA report © – College of Policing Limited (2019) This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open- government-licence/version/3, write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU or email: [email protected]. Where we have identified any third party copyright information, you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at: http://whatworks.college.police.uk/Research/Pages/Published.aspx The College of Policing will provide fair access to all readers and, to support this commitment, this document can be provided in alternative formats. Send any enquiries regarding this publication, including requests for an alternative format to: [email protected]. Page 2 of 142 Version 1.0 Obtaining initial accounts REA report Contents Executive summary .............................................................................................................. 5 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 10 Background........................................................................................................................ 10 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 12 Overview ............................................................................................................................ 12 Review process ................................................................................................................. 12 Search strategy.................................................................................................................. 13 Sifting ................................................................................................................................. 13 Criteria for inclusion of studies in the review ..................................................................... 14 Data management and extraction ...................................................................................... 15 Quality assessment ........................................................................................................... 16 Synthesis ........................................................................................................................... 16 Limitations.......................................................................................................................... 17 Overview of evidence ......................................................................................................... 18 Evidence flow..................................................................................................................... 18 Characteristics of studies ................................................................................................... 19 Findings ............................................................................................................................... 20 Building rapport.................................................................................................................. 20 Question types ................................................................................................................... 22 Forcing answers ................................................................................................................ 24 Giving feedback ................................................................................................................. 25 Specific cognitive interview techniques ............................................................................. 27 Eye closure techniques...................................................................................................... 33 Self-administered interviews .............................................................................................. 35 Misinformation ................................................................................................................... 37 Misinformation warnings .................................................................................................... 42 Alcohol intoxication ............................................................................................................ 43 Mental state ....................................................................................................................... 45 Recommendations .............................................................................................................. 49 References ........................................................................................................................... 50 Appendices .......................................................................................................................... 61 Appendix A: Tables of included studies ............................................................................. 61 Table 1: Building rapport .................................................................................................... 61 Version 1.0 Page 3 of 142 Obtaining initial accounts REA report Table 2: Question types ..................................................................................................... 68 Table 3: Forcing answers .................................................................................................. 72 Table 4: Giving feedback ................................................................................................... 77 Table 5: Cognitive interview techniques ............................................................................ 81 Table 6: Eye closure techniques ........................................................................................ 90 Table 7: Self-Administered Interview (SAI) ........................................................................ 96 Table 8: Misinformation ................................................................................................... 103 Table 9: Misinformation warnings .................................................................................... 123 Table 10: Alcohol intoxication .......................................................................................... 124 Table 11: Mental state ..................................................................................................... 129 Appendix B: Search protocols ......................................................................................... 136 Appendix C: Search strategy ........................................................................................... 137 Appendix D: Initial sift exclusion criteria .......................................................................... 139 Appendix E: Full text review exclusion criteria ................................................................. 140 Appendix F: Quality assessment criteria ......................................................................... 142 Page 4 of 142 Version 1.0 Obtaining initial accounts REA report Executive summary Background This report presents the findings of a rapid evidence assessment (REA) conducted to inform the development of the College of Policing’s national guidelines to support frontline officers and staff to take initial accounts from victims and witnesses. Initial account taking was chosen as the focus for guidance development as part of a drive to improve the investigation of volume and priority crime. As the first step in an investigation, the taking and recording of victim and witness interviews has been shown to be a key factor in the detection of crime, and can have a direct influence on investigative outcomes.1 However, recent HMIC Peel Inspections suggest that frontline officers are increasingly being asked to conduct investigations without the appropriate level of investigative training.2 Consultation with the National Investigative Interviewing Strategic Steering Group (NIISSG) indicated that problems persist with the initial account taking by frontline officers and staff and addressing this problem could have a positive impact on investigations as a whole. The guideline sought to provide recommendations on the most effective ways for frontline officers and staff to improve the quality of initial accounts. To help ensure the practice recommendations were based on the best available evidence, reviews of the empirical evidence were carried out to address the following questions: 1. What works in eliciting quality information from victims and witnesses in pressurised or dynamic environments? 2. What factors affect the quality of information provided by victims and witnesses? A systematic search of a wide range of relevant databases and websites retrieved 7,158 records which were sifted based on relevance and quality criteria. The exclusion criteria were developed iteratively and in consultation with the Guideline Committee. 149 studies were included and synthesised. 1 Jansson (2005), Robinson & Tilley (2009). 2 HMIC (2016). Version 1.0 Page 5 of 142 Obtaining initial
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