Reflection Paper

7

Abstract

In the research article, Interviewing Witness, the context informed about the critical elements that determines the success of a witness interview. The purpose of this research was to emphasis on the many aspects that should be examined when conducting an interview with a witness. These aspects often should be noted both before and during the interview process. The study indicated that preparations made beforehand plays a crucial role in the success and the overall gain of the interview. The study examined how both the interviewer’s and the interviewee’s behaviors can place impact on the overall results of the interview through direct or indirect ways. Furthermore, the experiments also examined the actions carried by the interviewee after the process of interviewing. These actions can also place a significant impacts on the success of the interviewing process. By inspecting those different aspects, considering these findings can help in more efficient interviewing processes within the criminal justice area in the future.

Discussion and Analysis of Interviewing Witness

Research Design and Methods

With several interviewers as the test subjects, they were assigned to interview a group of audience through distinct strategic approaches. Those interviewers followed the provided guidelines to interview and see the degree of effectiveness on their ways approaches of interviewing. Interviewer One (Alpha) was being told to interview a targeted individual on a random given subject. Interviewer Alpha was not informed on any background information of the interviewed witness. Nor did Interviewer Alpha was informed of any information about similar cases from the past. Throughout the interviewing session, Interviewer Alpha was told to interview only through a closed question method. This means that the questions were asked in a format that can be only answered with yes or no. After the interviewing session, Interviewer Alpha was asked to take a lunch break for an hour, before writing down the information he learned from the interview. Interviewer Beta’s interviewing method was totally different from Interviewer Alpha’s. Interviewer Beta was informed of what kind of targeted individual she would be interviewing. Interviewer Beta also received a generalized profile regarding the interviewed target. During the interviewing session, Interviewer Beta was encouraged to ask open-ended questions. This meant that the interviewee often answered questions through a more in-depth approach. Then, Interviewer Beta was asked to write down what she learned immediately after the interviewing session has ended.

Research Results

The result shown indicated that Interviewer Alpha’s interviewing success was a lot lower than Interviewer Beta’s. Due to that Interviewer Alpha did not have an overall idea of what kind of identity she was going to interview, she wasn’t able to come up with any questions that were relevant to the subject. As a result, she did not review much valuable information. However, Interviewer Beta was fully prepared and knew exactly what types of questions she was going to ask the interviewee. During the interview, since Interviewer Alpha can only ask closed questions, she was not able to know the details of the various questions asked. Meanwhile, Interviewer Beta was able to get a more comprehensive answer from the open-ended questions. “If the entire interview is closed questions, you may lose information that would otherwise be available to you” (“Interviewing Witnesses,” 2005, p.12). During the conclusion of the interview, Interviewer Alpha wasn’t able to write down a lot of the information accessed, because he forgot some of the contexts after having his lunch break. However, Interviewer Beta was able to write down nearly all the information accessed right after the conclusion of the interview session. “Once completed the interview, it is best to draw-up summary as soon after as possible, so the events are fresh in mind” (“Interviewing Witnesses,” 2005, p.13).

Strengths and Weaknesses

The strength of this experimental study was that there were obstacles designed not only during the interview session, but also before and after the duration. By instituting those obstacles throughout the different time periods of the interviewing session, the researchers can really see the different kinds of impacts that can be produced for such interview. For instance, the closed questions and the open ended questions asked helped in understanding the how the different types of answers provided by the interviewees can really impact the clarity of the responses. Meanwhile, the part where the interviewers were informed about the background information about the interviewees before the interviewing session helped demonstrate how crucial it is to do some research work on the targeted interviewee before the interviewing session begins. These different ways of testing throughout the different periods of the interviewing session really contribute to the overall benefits of the interview. The weakness of this experiment was that the trials didn’t consider the age of the interviewees. In criminal laws, it is really important to pay attention to the age of the test subject. Different people at different ages can really provide different responses and behaviors, especially during criminal interviews. This was one crucial impact which the experiment has overlooked.

Implications for the Criminal Justice System

The implications which this experiment has on the criminal justice system can be examined from many perspectives. The ensuring of completing preparation works before the interviewing session assists the interviewer to ask relevant questions during the interview. “Before interviewing a witness, you should familiarize yourself with any report of facts you can, such as police report, an incident report at the commissary or BX, or any other written information available” (“Interviewing Witnesses,” 2005, p. 12). This eventually helps in gaining valuable responses instead of pointless answers. This can help in the analyzing procedure after the interview within the justice system. The different activities done by the interviewer after the interviewing session, such as writing down the information rather than doing it after having a lunch break, help to ensure the quality of the recorded information gained during the interviewing session. All of these different aspects can play crucial roles within the criminal justice system.

Conclusion

The author’s conclusion highlighted the multiple factors that can either lead an interviewer to success or failure. These factors are the amount of preparation works done before the interview session, the types of questions asked during the interview, and the type of actions which the interviewee chooses to commit once the session has ended. Those three crucial characteristics can really bring influences on the result of an interview. Other areas of research that can contribute to the success of criminal interviewing process are to focusing on the influence of the interviewee’s age and the interviewee’s psychological behaviors.

References

Interviewing Witnesses. (2005). Reporter, 32(1), 12-13. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy.udayton.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=92ea877e-3d50-45f0-9224-61d0e529f7d9%40sessionmgr4008