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Contact with law enforcement (e.g., during contact at border control or investigative interviews) is mostly an unusual encounter, and can be a stressful and anxiety inducing process. So far, research in this areas has focused on techniques to increase cooperation and information yield from interviewees (e.g., through rapport building). The majority of this research is conducted with and aimed at neurotypical witnesses, victims or suspects. Just slowly law enforcement is implementing policies aiding vulnerable witnesses and suspects. Vulnerable interviewees do often have some legal protection, but this help is often only accessible in cases where vulnerabilities are obvious or supported by an official diagnosis. There is often very limited training for interviewers on how to interview in a way that would be generally optimal for typical expressions of autism.
With this project, we are testing techniques (here: procedural information) that should make the investigative interviewing process more inclusive for all, but perhaps especially for autistics/ people with autism.
Research questions
Exact research questions will be determined based on student interests after discussion. Example research questions include:
1. Can pre-interview information such as clearly presented procedural information help to a) reduce the interviewee’s potential anxiety, stress or uncertainty before and after the interview?
2. Can pre-interview information such as clearly presented procedural information additionally increase interview success (i.e., amount and correctness of information provided by the interviewee).
3. How do the interaction partners experience rapport during the investigative-style interview?
Type of research
Online or in person experiments.
Key words
Investigative interview, autism, neurodiversity, anxiety, vulnerability, rapport
INFORMATION
Please contact Lynn Weiher (l.weiher@utwente.nl) when you are interested in this assignment. The assignment is open to three to four students.
Literature
Gudjonsson, G. H. (2010). Psychological vulnerabilities during police interviews. Why are they important?. Legal and criminological Psychology, 15(2), 161-175. https://doi.org/10.1348/135532510X500064