Cognitive Interview Technique for Victims and Witnesses of Crime (From Psychological Methods in Criminal Investigation and Evidence, P 191-215, 1989, David C. Raskin, ed. -- See NCJ-120545)

• NCJ Number: 120551
• Author(s): R E Geiselman; R P Fisher
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: Springer Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Eyewitnesses are acknowledged by many sheriff's deputies and detectives to be the most important feature of criminal investigation, but only recently has research been devoted to improving techniques for interviewing eyewitnesses. These methods are called the cognitive interview.

Abstract

The cognitive interview follows the same general format as the standard interview but is augmented with the following instructions given to the witness before eliciting the narrative report: reconstruct the circumstances; be complete; do not edit even seemingly unimportant information from your report; recall in different orders; change perspectives; and take on the perspective of a prominent character in the incident. Although some investigators already use one or more of these techniques, five experiments showed that the complete cognitive interview, conducted by experienced professionals, is the most effective at improving the quality and quantity of information obtained from victims and witnesses. 5 tables, 33 references.