Victims can provide details necessary to resolve criminal investigations but may be reluctant to come forward and fully disclose an incident to law enforcement. Although evidence-based interviewing techniques such as rapport-building have shown promise in increasing cooperation, the potential impact of interviewers' inherent characteristics (e.g., age and gender) on information disclosure has been relatively under examined. We investigated mock sexual assault victims' preferences for various police interviewer characteristics and the impact of these preferences on hypothetical reporting behaviour. Participants rated interviewers' interpersonal skills as highly important. Gender differences were observed, with only female participants consistently reporting that having a same-gender interviewer was important. Participants also indicated that if they were provided with their preferred interviewer, they would feel more comfortable, provide more detail, and would be more willing to report the offence to police. Our findings suggest that matching interviewees with their preferred interviewers may improve interviewing and investigative outcomes.

中文翻译：

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寻找合适的人选：模拟受害者对警察采访者特征的偏好

受害者可以提供解决刑事调查所需的详细信息，但可能不愿意站出来向执法部门充分披露事件。尽管建立关系等循证访谈技术在加强合作方面显示出前景，但访谈者的固有特征（例如，年龄和性别）对信息披露的潜在影响却相对不足。我们调查了模拟性侵犯受害者对各种警察采访者特征的偏好以及这些偏好对假设报告行为的影响。参与者认为面试官的人际交往能力非常重要。观察到性别差异，只有女性参与者一致报告说有一个同性的采访者很重要。参与者还表示，如果为他们提供了他们喜欢的采访者，他们会感觉更舒服，提供更多细节，并且更愿意向警方报告犯罪行为。我们的研究结果表明，将受访者与其首选的采访者相匹配可能会改善采访和调查结果。