‘Being nice’ is effective when interviewing ethnic suspects
Detective must adapt interviewing techniques to suspect’s cultural background
30 September 2009
The effectiveness of behavioural strategies that detectives use during investigative interviews depends on the suspect’s cultural background, according to research carried out by psychologist Karlijn Beune of the University of Twente. Evidently, arguments based on logical reasoning are most likely to succeed with non-ethnic suspects, while nice behaviour has a more positive effect with ethnic suspects. Beune is due to obtain her doctorate on 1 October at the Faculty of Behavioural Sciences.
During an investigative interview, a detective often uses
different strategies to gather information. The Standard
Interviewing Strategy applied in the Netherlands identifies two key
strategies: 'being nice' and 'rational persuasion'. However,
research by Karlijn Beune of the University of Twente reveals that
these two behavioural strategies have a different effect on
suspects, depending on whether they belong to the majority
population or an ethnic minority. Direct logical behaviour
(rational persuasion) turns out to be more effective when
interviewing members of the majority population, while indirect
relational behaviour (being nice) resonates more with ethnic
suspects. This is the conclusion of three studies that Beune
carried out for her research.
Chatting online with suspects
In the first study pupils were asked to commit a theft in
a controlled setting. An experienced detective then interviewed the
suspect. This interview was recorded in order to analyse the
behaviour of both the suspect and the detective.
In the second study participants were asked to chat online with a
detective. They were shown a film to help them imagine the mind-set
of a thief. This was then followed by a virtual interview. In this
way it was possible to establish which combinations of behavioural
strategies were effective and whether the effects depended on the
applied sequence of strategies and the suspect's cultural
background.
The final study consisted of an analysis of video footage of
real-life interviews with suspects. This cast light on the
immediate impact of the various behavioural strategies on the
suspect's willingness to provide information. Besides 'being nice'
and 'rational persuasion', Beune also investigated the effect of
more robust behaviour, such as giving warnings. First, she looked
at the combination of robust behaviour with 'being nice' and
'rational persuasion' (based on good-cop/bad-cop strategy). Next,
Beune studied whether a robust approach had a different effect when
aimed at the person or at his or her social environment (family,
friends). As with the earlier results, it was found that robust
behaviour is most effective when it resonates with the suspect's
cultural background.
This research demonstrates that cultural differences most
definitely play a role in investigative interviews. By adapting
their behaviour to the suspect's cultural background, detectives
improve their chances of establishing the truth.
Note for the press
Karlijn Beune did her doctoral research within the
Research Group of Psychology & Communication of Health &
Risk. She was supervised by Prof. Karen van Oudenhoven-Van der Zee,
Prof. Hubert Coonen and Dr Ellen Giebels. Her thesis Talking
Heads is digitally available on request.
Contact person for the press: Rianne Wanders,
053-4892721.
