Investigations Principle: A Discussion on Ethical Standards in Investigative Interviewing

Running Head: INVESTIGATIONS PRINCIPLE
INVESTIGATIONS PRINCIPLE
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1INVESTIGATIONS PRINCIPLE
Introduction
It can be mentioned that the performance of private investigative agencies, governmental
agencies and the police is continuously scrutinized by the criminal justice system, public and the
government for the purpose of identifying the need to improve the investigation standards across
the world. Witnesses, victims and the suspects form the foundations of every level of
investigation (Vanderhallen & Vervaeke 2014). It is worth mentioning that that interviewing
such suspects, victims and witnesses is an integral part of an investigative procedure. The term
investigative interviewing had been first introduced in the United Kingdom in the 1990s after the
previously used tactics by the police to obtain relevant information, confessions were
condemned. The process of investigative interviewing had been developed with the collaborative
efforts of the police officers, psychologists and lawyers. Subsequent to the development of the
technique of investigative interviewing, there has been shift from the process of interrogation, to
obtain confession from the suspects by the police to a far more ethical approach of gathering
relevant information and evidence with the introduction of the PACE interview model. Many
other countries in the European Union have adopted this ethical approach of conducting
investigative interviewing with the inception of the European Convention of Human Rights. It
can be mentioned that other countries such as New Zealand, Canada and Australia have also
adopted this investigative interviewing approach due to the criticism of interrogation techniques.
In the USA there has also been a shift from the accusatorial approach of REID technique due to
several false confessions and failed cases to a more scientific approach.

2INVESTIGATIONS PRINCIPLE
Discussion:
Interview can be described as one of the primary methods which is used by the police to obtain
information based on which they conduct further investigation. The police generally interview
suspects, victims and witnesses of a crime (Powell & Barnett 2015). The police may interview a
witness form the purpose of gaining new information about a crime such as the description of the
crime scene, offenders or any other account or event which are useful for background
information. In case of a suspect interview, the police ascertain that an individual is already
involved in the offense. The purpose of suspect interviews is to implicate others or to exonerate
the suspect. It can be mentioned that an interview is not without risks. Some interview practices
can lead investigators to obtain misleading, unreliable or poor information. In case an interview
is not properly conducted, there is a chance of miscarriage of justice.
In recent times there has been a lot of debate about the methods of interrogation and
investigation. Concerns have been raised about the use coercive techniques such as torture and
other interrogative procedures which are robust, reliability on the information obtained during
the process of the interview and the impact of the interrogation or interview on the individuals.
Therefore, it can be inferred that now, is the right time to highlight the need of conducting police
interviews which are in line with the ethical standards.
Early approaches to police interviews
Since the inception of time and crime, the agents and the regulating authorities of legislature
have aimed and attempted to obtain information from the suspects about their involvement in
their respective crime. Until very recently, the investigation techniques used by the police to
obtain information involved some form of coercion such as threats, beatings and physical torture.

3INVESTIGATIONS PRINCIPLE
As opined by Fisher& Geiselman (2017), the term third degree had been coined to describe the
process of obtaining information about a crime from a suspect of the crime by the use of
aggressive techniques which included bright lights, physical blows and cold water. The basic
objective or purpose of the third degree was to elicit a confession from the suspect about his
involvement in the crime for which he was being investigated. Such aggressive interrogative
techniques contained accusations made by the interviewer. While conducting the interrogation
the investigator already presumed that the suspect had committed the crime and it was only a
matter of time before he confessed about his involvement in the crime.
However, in the subsequent years the need to conduct more research about the workings and the
capacity of the human memory and the behavior of the suspects during the course of the
interview had been felt (Matsumoto et al., 2015). These researches brought to light some new
approaches to investigative interviewing with remarkable improvements over the use of physical
violence and coercion to extract confessions from the suspects. However, not all of the new
approaches were successful. Some of the important techniques for conducting interviews without
the use of physical torture or violence that had been devised from the findings of the researches
conducted included the following:
Question and Answer
It was after the findings of the work of Hassler in the 1930s the interview method of question and
answer arose. In this method the interviewer prepares a set of questions. The interviewer then
asks the questions to the suspects about the topics of interests to the interviewer. It can be stated
that in this approach the interviewer does not aim to build a rapport with the interviewee. As
opined by Leins, Zimmerman & Zabecki (2017), it can be stated that this approach of