Police interviews with suspected child sex offenders: does use of empathy and question type influence the amount of investigation relevant information obtained?

Abstract

Using transcripts of 26 real-life interviews with suspected child sex offenders from England, this study examined the use of empathy and the impact of question type on the amount of investigation relevant information (IRI) obtained. There were no significant differences in the amount of IRI obtained in the interviews as a function of the use of empathy by police officers. The mean proportion of inappropriate questions was significantly higher than the mean proportion of appropriate questions and, as hypothesized, the responses to appropriate questions contained significantly more items of IRI than responses to inappropriate questions.

Empathy in the field: Towards a taxonomy of empathic communication in information gathering interviews with suspected sex offenders

“…Grounded theory was well suited for this research because it supports the derivation of analytic categories directly from the data rather than from pre-conceived hypotheses. To date, there exists no preexisting theory to label and explain specific types of empathic behaviour displayed by police officers during interviews with sex offenders (or indeed any type of offender), and the limited amount of published research has employed a broad operational definition of empathy (see also Oxburgh & Ost, 2011;Oxburgh et al, 2012;Oxburgh et al, 2015). Given that empathy is a complex and multifaceted cognitive and social phenomenon (e.g., Jolliffe & Farrington, 2004;Larden, Melin, Holst, & Langstrom, 2006), grounded theory was employed to label types of empathy in the first instance.…”

“…For example, females have been found to be more empathic than males (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004), with femininity being strongly and positively correlated with empathy (Karniol, Gabay, Ochion, & Harari, 1998), a finding supported by research (Gettman, Ranelli, & Reid, 1996), which suggests gender influences behaviour and responses to others. Previous interviewing research has not yet considered gender, although Oxburgh et al (2012) did comment that suspects (who were all male) appeared to offer more 'empathic opportunities' to female interviewers than to male interviewers.…”

“…Some researchers have recently begun the process of investigating empathy in police interviews, and its impact on the amount of information obtained (Oxburgh, Ost, & Cherryman, 2012;Oxburgh, Ost, Morris, & Cherryman, 2015). However, their findings have been mixed, and as such investigative empathy is not well understood.…”

Investigative Interviews with Victims of Child Sexual Abuse: The Relationship between Question Type and Investigation Relevant Information

“…Bull, 2010;Davies, et al, 2000;Lamb, et al,1998;Lamb, et al, 2009;Myklebust & Bjørklund, 2006;2009;Oxburgh, Ost & Cherryman, 2010a;Oxburgh, Myklebust & Grant, 2010b;Poole & Lamb 1998). Such best practice is also promoted through investigative interviewing institutes such as the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD; Lamb et al, 2000b).…”

“…Many have found that interviews contain mainly direct, leading and suggestive utterances (Aldridge & Cameron, 1999;Craig, et al, 1999;Davies & Wilson, 1997;Lamb, et al, 1996a;Lamb, et al, 2009;Myklebust & Bjørklund, 2006;Oxburgh et al, 2010a;Sternberg, et al, 2001).…”