Topic outline
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Forget the good cop/bad cop dynamic as an approach to interviewing suspects. Effective interviewers of suspects are ‘good cops’. They have excellent interpersonal skills and in particular, are friendly, analytical, patient and pay attention to detail (Newbury 2016, p. 170).
Recalling the status classifications of the ‘offender’ group from week 2, the basis to commence an interview with a suspect is due to a reasonable suspicion formed by investigators that the suspect has committed a crime. Where suspicion exists, the investigator must ‘caution’ the suspect.
The formal ‘caution’ delivered orally to a suspect as part of the interview, is to advise the suspect that they do not have to answer any questions (other than those that are required to be answered by law, for example, a suspect’s personal particulars) and that anything they do say in interview may comprise evidence presented to a court.
The interview itself is a conversation between investigator and suspect relating to the suspicion of the commission of a crime.
The format of the conversation is not tied to any particular methodology, however, the interview is more likely to be successful when there is a method of approach applied. The term ‘successful’ is used loosely here. We mean, that the investigator discovers the information they are seeking that either establishes the commission of the crime and the suspect’s culpability or it does not. Both outcomes are successes. Eliciting admissions or confessions in an interview is rare. Not doing so does not mean the interview has been unsuccessful.
Watch: Interviewing Suspects (8:50 min)
Watch: Westside Justice Episode 3.1 - Derek Fowler, Suspect Interview (3:40 min)The Westside Police experience highlights some of the obligations incumbent on investigators when dealing with youth offenders. In the next reading, Darren Palmer and colleagues describe our current youth justice system in Australia as integrated and restorative, a model that largely views youth as victims of structural transformations due to rapid social and economic change (Palmer et al 2016, p. 116).
Read: Chapter 5, 'Youth and crime', pp. 103 - 128.
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