Interviewing and Interrogation Issues with Juveniles

Police Training and Interviewing and Interrogation

The REID Technique of interviewing and interrogation is the most common training approach and is considered to be the most popular in the United States (Cleary & Warner, 2015).

Introduction

In the case study done by Cleary and Warner, they discussed common issues faced with methods used while questioning juvenile suspects. The article indicated that typical 4-day REID Training, which consists of 32 instructional hours, only dedicated 10 minutes towards youth interrogation. The 10 minutes was used to advocate the use of the same strategies for youth as adults. 33% of the officers are now found for additional training in juvenile interrogation bringing a huge concern.

The main concern faced with interviewing and interrogating juveniles is the lack of knowledge in child and adolescent development.

The Issues Faced with Juveniles

Psychological Manipulation

A study was done from Baltimore County Police Department to find that the usage of the REID technique on children and youth had no difference in usage compared to adult suspects. This indicates that the level of psychological manipulation is the same for all ages.

Scientifically, the adolescent brain is not fully developed, meaning they have a higher attraction to the reward factor along with peer influences. This leads to a large amount of false confessions due to the interrogation question regarding what the juvenile might believe is a reward. "One study reported that among the adolescent cases in its sample of documented false confessions, getting to go home was one of the most common reasons cited for falsely confessing" (Drizin & Leo, 2004). Recent studies also showed that the reward factor in the brain is closely connected to puberty, which drives the adolescences psychological decisions based on the hormones.

Juveniles cannot comprehend what is actually going on while in the interrogation room, meaning the psychological manipulation from the REID Technique can influence false confessions in Children and Adolescence.

" If you tell us the truth you won't go to jail."

"I'm just trying to help you, so please tell me the truth."

" If you tell me the truth you can go home."

The Numbers

Many false convictions faced with juvenile suspects are caused by false confessions. In a study done on 328 exoneration cases the results of false confessions were:

44% by Juveniles
13% by Adults
72% by Young Juveniles ( ages 12-15)

Psychologically..

The human brain does not fully develop until the age of 20 or higher, which is why there is a large controversy against trials done on juveniles in the adult system. Many people argue that juveniles shouldn't be processed as an adult in some cases, due to their congestive decision-making being undeveloped.

Based on the statistics presented on the amount of falsely convicted juveniles, "studies have shown that adolescent decision making is influenced by a complex interplay of neurological systems and is highly variable across contexts" (Steinberg, 2014). This indicates that their decisions are made by the stimulation of the environment along with biological hormones.

More information on False Confessions:

New Methods of Interrogation : PACE & ChildFirst

PACE Model

ChildFirst Method

The PACE Model is a new method of interrogation that is considered to be more successful and is being expanded to different organizations and other nations.

Officers are trained to use non-accusatory interviewing approaches, instead of the constant questionings that purposely make the interview uncomfortable. The new method asks interviewers in which new information is compared against the suspect's previous facts .

The ChildFirst Method advocates the same interviewing style as in the PACE Model, typically targeting children suspects and witnesses.

Although it may resemble the PACE Model, the number one priority of ChildFirst Method is to make sure the environment in which the child is being interviewed at stays consistently as a non-accusatory space.

Due to the self reflective portion of the integration along with the stress free environment that prevents adolescence to falsely confess due to the attraction in the reward factor of their brain.

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