Interviewing and Assessing Clients from Different Cultural Backgrounds: Guidelines for All Forensic Professionals

Powell, Martine B.; Bartholomew, Terry

doi:10.1002/0470013397.ch27

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Additionally, questions of which the answers can only be intuitively assessed do not result in evidence that can be used to build a case. In contrast, an open mind and alertness to cultural differences can help elicit more accurate narratives (Powell & Bartholomew, 2003). As suggested by previous research, cultural differences may influence the specificity of asylum seekers' statements (Jobson, 2009) and effective communication (Doornbos, 2006), and may hamper the assessment of truthfulness (Taylor, Larner, Conchie, & van der Zee, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Establishing Origin: Analysing the Questions Asked in Asylum Interviews

Veldhuizen

Maas

Horselenberg

et al. 2017

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

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In the absence of evidence, asylum seekers are interviewed to assess the credibility of their stories. Few studies have examined whether or not the questions asked in such interviews stimulate the applicant to give lengthy, detailed, and accurate answers. The style, type, and content of the questions asked in order to assess a claim about origin were analysed in 40 case files from the Dutch Immigration Service. A large proportion of the questions were closed and fact-checking questions. Less than one fifth of questions were open or cued recall questions. The results show that to assess credibility of origin, knowledge questions were posed about the immediate living environment, flight to Europe, identity documents, country of origin, and personal background of applicants. Possibilities for increasing the quantity and quality of information obtained in asylum interviews are discussed. Future research should validate the assumption that truthful claimants have substantial knowledge about their country and town of origin.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Establishing Origin: Analysing the Questions Asked in Asylum Interviews

Veldhuizen

Maas

Horselenberg

et al. 2017

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law

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“…One likely explanation is that they were merely using a style of questioning that came naturally to them. Specific, direct and leading questions are very widely used in English‐speaking culture (Powell & Bartholomew, 2003) and extensive specialized training is usually required by professionals to master an open‐ended, non‐leading style of questioning (Powell et al , 2005). Indeed, the style of interviewing by caregivers in this study was not dissimilar to the questioning of some investigative interviewers in previous studies (Lamb et al , 2002; Sternberg, Lamb, Davies, & Westcott 2001; Warren et al , 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An examination of the questioning styles of police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with intellectual disabilities

Agnew

Powell

Snow

2006

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Reproduction in any form (including the internet) is prohibited without prior permission from the Society (14%). The higher rate of these latter two negative strategies among caregivers is also highlighted when considering the proportion of interviewers in each interviewer category who used each of the prompts at least once. No police officer criticized the child, only 4% stated that there is more to tell and only 7% disputed information recalled by the child or asked the child if they were sure about their response. In contrast, 39% of caregivers criticized the child on at least one occasion during the interview, 32% stated there must be more to tell and 46% either disputed information recalled by the child or asked the child if they were sure about their response.Police interviewers' responses when target items were not reported in context Within the police interviews, children provided a total of 46 specific target details that were not described in context (M ¼ 1:64, SD ¼ 1:39). Police were found to follow-up 61% of these details at some point in the interview, using a total of 75 prompts (M ¼ 2:68, SD ¼ 4:76). Of the possible types of prompts available to elicit the information, the majority (59%) were specific cued-recall prompts (e.g. who, what, when, where or how questions). For the remaining follow-up prompts, 20% were closed questions, 17% were open-question prompts and on 4% of occasions a clarification prompt was used (e.g. 'I'm sorry, you said something about a Boo, what were you saying?'). Of those specific items that were followed-up, on only 9 (31%) of the occasions did children actually provide the specific contextual information.

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“…Vulnerable witnesses can spend much of their lives trying to appear competent (Perske, 1994) and, therefore, may be especially unwilling to admit ‘I don't know’ unless they are assisted in the rapport phase to realise how good it is to say this (when appropriate, of course). Communication (on neutral topics) in this phase should guide the interviewer concerning this particularly vulnerable witness' relevant competencies.…”

Section: Guidance On Interviewing Particularly Vulnerable Witnessesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The investigative interviewing of children and other vulnerable witnesses: Psychological research and working/professional practice

Bull

2010

Legal Criminol Psychol

134

105

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This article will first of all outline what is generally meant by 'vulnerable' witnesses. It will then briefly review research on why obtaining effective witness accounts is important and on beliefs concerning vulnerable witnesses. Some issues to do with vulnerable witnesses' access to justice will be briefly presented, as will the steps taken by a government to improve access. Such steps include the publication of official guidance documents on how to interview in a skilled manner, this guidance being extensively based on the findings of dozens of psychological research studies (conducted, for example, at schools or 'in the laboratory') and relevant theory. Several psychologists' studies of the actual investigative interviewing of child witnesses and of vulnerable adult witnesses (e.g. by the police in their investigations) will then be reviewed, followed by an account of an outstanding example of how the findings of psychological research has improved interviewer performance. The limited number of studies of the effects of long delays and of interviewer manner will then be reviewed. This will be followed by an overview of research and guidance on some extra issues pertaining to the interviewing of particularly vulnerable witnesses. At the end, this article will mention some remaining issues that psychological research should address. Overall, the aim of this article is to demonstrate that the findings of psychological research are very relevant to good interviewer performance and can have a profound positive influence on 'what works' in the investigative interviewing of vulnerable witnesses.

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Interviewing and Assessing Clients from Different Cultural Backgrounds: Guidelines for All Forensic Professionals

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Establishing Origin: Analysing the Questions Asked in Asylum Interviews

Establishing Origin: Analysing the Questions Asked in Asylum Interviews

An examination of the questioning styles of police officers and caregivers when interviewing children with intellectual disabilities

The investigative interviewing of children and other vulnerable witnesses: Psychological research and working/professional practice

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