Interviewing techniques, genres and contexts

A study of the ways in which the media interview has been described and theorised in academic literature, and in particular the genres of interviewing that this literature has produced. Identifies interviewing techniques used on radio in regional Queensland. Evaluates the ways in which interviewing techniques and practices are mediated by questions of gender and work culture.

Improving the legal aspects of police interviewing of suspects

The purpose of this paper is to provide some guidance to police interviewers and trainers in relation to improving the legal aspects of police questioning of suspects. The paper is written with reference to Victorian legislation. Sixteen professionals (defence barristers, academics, prosecutors, and detectives), all with extensive knowledge of the law and experience evaluating police interviews with suspects, took part in individual indepth interviews (M ¼ 100 minutes). The aim of the interviews was to discuss the limitations of police interviews with suspects and to provide exemplars of concerns from a set of de-identified transcripts that had been provided to the professionals prior to their interviews with us. Overall, four key limitations were raised: (a) inadequate particularisation of offences, (b) inappropriate phrasing of questions, (c) poor introduction of allegations, and (d) questions that unfairly ask the suspect to comment on the victim’s perspective. These concerns and their practical implications are discussed.

The relationship between investigative interviewing experience and open-ended question usage

We present three studies examining the role of prior job experience in interviewing and interviewers’ ability to learn open-ended questions during a training program. We predicted a negative relationship such that more experienced interviewers would perform worse after training than less experienced interviewers, and that (irrespective of baseline performance) the more experienced interviewers would improve the least during training. These predictions were made for two reasons. First, specific questions are commonly used in the workplace (i.e. open-ended questioning constitutes new learning). Second, experience in the use of specific questions potentially interferes with newly learned open-ended questions. Overall, our predictions were supported across different participant samples (including police officers specialized in child abuse investigation and social workers from the child protection area), time delays, and modes of training. The results highlight the need for investment in ongoing investigative interviewing training commencing early during professionals’ careers, prior to the establishment of long-term habits in the use of specific questions.

Motivational interviewing techniques : facilitating behaviour change in the general practice setting

Background: One of the biggest challenges that primary care practitioners face is helping people change longstanding behaviours that pose significant health risks.

Objective: To explore current understanding regarding how and why people change, and the potential role of motivational interviewing in facilitating behaviour change in the general practice setting.

Discussion: Research into health related behaviour change highlights the importance of motivation, ambivalence and resistance. Motivational interviewing is a counselling method that involves enhancing a patient's motivation to change by means of four guiding principles, represented by the acronym RULE: Resist the righting reflex; Understand the patient's own motivations; Listen with empathy; and Empower the patient. Recent meta-analyses show that motivational interviewing is effective for decreasing alcohol and drug use in adults and adolescents and evidence is accumulating in others areas of health including smoking cessation, reducing sexual risk behaviours, improving adherence to treatment and medication and diabetes management.

The association between investigative interviewers' knowledge of question type and adherence to best-practice interviewing

It is well established that not all investigative interviewers adhere to ‘best-practice’ interview guidelines (i.e., the use of open-ended questions) when interviewing child witnesses about abuse. However, little research has examined the sub skills associated with open question usage. In this article, we examined the association between investigative interviewers' ability to identify various types of questions and adherence to open-ended questions in a standardized mock interview. Study 1, incorporating 27 trainee police interviewers, revealed positive associations between open-ended question usage and two tasks; a recognition task where trainees used a structured protocol to guide their response and a recall task where they generated examples of open-ended questions from memory. In Study 2, incorporating a more heterogeneous sample of 40 professionals and a different training format and range of tests, positive relationships between interviewers' identification of questions and adherence to best-practice interviewing was consistently revealed. A measure of interviewer knowledge about what constitutes best-practice investigative (as opposed to knowledge of question types) showed no association with interviewer performance. The implications of these findings for interviewer training programs are discussed.

What themes trigger investigative interviewers to ask specific questions when interviewing children?

Recent research has established that investigative interviewers have difficulty adhering to openended questions and instead ask specific questions when interviewing children about abuse. The current study aims to examine the themes in abuse-related interviews that trigger investigators to ask specific questions. Twenty police officers who were authorised to conduct investigative interviews with children completed a mock interview with an expert in child abuse interviewing who had been trained to play the role of an abused child. During the interview, the officers were stopped by a researcher and asked to reflect on why they had asked specific questions. Overall, the results revealed five areas where the officers deviated from open-ended questions. These related to: (1) the identity of the alleged offender; (2) the meaning of terms used by the child to describe genitals; (3) whether or not penetration occurred; (4) the offender's intent and motives; and (5) the timing of the abuse and where it occurred. Each of these themes is discussed, along with the implications for trainers and researchers in child abuse interviewing.

Evaluating police interviewing practices with suspects in child-sexual abuse cases

This article examined adherence to current best practice recommendations for police interviewing of individuals suspected of committing child-sexual offences. We analysed 81 police records of interviews (electronically recorded and then transcribed) with suspects in child-sexual abuse cases in England and Australia. Overall we found areas of skilled practice, indicating that police interviewing in Australia and England is in a far better place than 20 years ago. However, this study also demonstrated that there is still a gap between the recommended guidelines for interviewing and what actually happens in practice. Specifically, limitations were found in the following areas: transparency of the interview process; introduction of allegations; disclosure of evidence; questioning techniques; and the interviewing approach or manner adopted. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Interviewing pairs: discussions on migration and identity

This article examines a research method of conducting interviews with pairs of individuals, who may be friends or relatives. The authors critically reflect on their experiences of collecting qualitative data in an interview with two respondents. While one-on-one interviews and focus groups are more established and well-studied forms of gathering research data, we argue that paired interviews as a data collections method present additional advantages as well as some challenges for qualitative researchers. The researchers embraced the opportunity to interview pairs of individuals with the intention of minimising the asymmetry of power habitually inherent in interview situations. In the authors' experiences, paired interviews served to empower those being interviewed and reduced the discomfort felt by some in the personal interview situation. This form of interviewing tended to give more autonomy to the respondents and prompted them to provide more nuanced responses. Paired interviews assisted respondents in feeling relaxed and comfortable, provided a vibrant environment that encouraged respondents to build on each other's ideas and enabled them to enhance each other's stories. Respondents were better motivated to build discussions around an interview question and then illustrate their responses with examples. In our studies, we found that our respondents tended to offer more thorough and comprehensive narratives in the setting of a paired interview.