DESCRIPTION
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 these 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 individuals do often have some legal protection, but this help is often only available 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 less extreme forms of vulnerability such as specific learning difficulties (e.g. dyslexia) or typical expressions of autism. With this project, we are testing different techniques that should make the investigative interviewing process more inclusive for all, but perhaps especially those that identify as neurodivergent.
This project will explore questions around this issue of interest to the student using whichever approach the student prefers (I.e. the project can be quantitative or qualitative, or consider the student or instructor perspective).
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Exact research questions will be determined based on student interests after discussion.
TYPE OF RESEARCH
Quantitative or Qualitative
KEY WORDS
Neurodiversity, investigative interviewing, Interview style, Interview procedure
Information
This project is open to up to 2 students.
Are you interested in this topic for your thesis? Please contact the theme coordinator Steven Watson: s.j.watson@utwente.nl
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