ABSTRACT

This study examined real-life audio-taped police interviews with 56 serious crime suspects in English and Wales. It provides an analysis of how suspects responded and behaved during the interviews and considers how suspects’ responses may be affected by contextual characteristics including the presence of legal advisors. It was found that fewer suspects admitted these serious offences in comparison to previous studies, with most suspects who did admit doing so early on in the interview. The majority of suspects’ responses were identified as ‘relevant’, only a very small proportion of interviews were assessed as ‘challenging’. Significant associations between suspects’ responses and context were found. Specifically, if the (alleged) victim was female, the location of the offence was in-doors, and there was no clear motive; then, suspects were more likely to say ‘no comment’ than to respond relevantly. Suspects who were 32 years of age or over, and had previous criminal convictions, were more likely to respond ‘relevantly’ than say ‘no comment’. The study also found that whilst present in the majority of interviews, the contributions of legal advisors were minimal (though more frequent legal advisor contributions were associated with the increased use of police strategies).

摘要

这项研究对英语和威尔士的56名严重犯罪嫌疑人进行了现实生活中的警方采访。它提供了对嫌疑人在面谈中的反应和举止的分析，并考虑了上下文特征（包括法律顾问在场）可能会如何影响嫌疑人的反应。结果发现，与以往的研究相比，接受这些严重犯罪的嫌疑犯更少，大多数确实在采访中承认的犯罪嫌疑人。大多数嫌疑犯的回答被确定为“相关”，只有极少数的访谈被认为是“具有挑战性”。发现犯罪嫌疑人的反应与情境之间存在显着关联。具体而言，如果（被指控的）受害者是女性，则犯罪地点在室内，没有明确的动机；然后，嫌疑犯更有可能说“无可奉告”，而不是做出相关回应。年龄32岁以上且曾被刑事定罪的犯罪嫌疑人更有可能做出“相关”回应，而不是说“不发表评论”。该研究还发现，尽管在大多数访谈中都存在法律顾问的贡献，但法律顾问的贡献却更多（与警察策略的使用增加有关）。