Oral Presentation: Gaining an Understanding of Psychological Detention in Voluntary Interviews

Title: Gaining an Understanding of Psychological Detention in Voluntary Interviews

Abstract:

 The current research addresses the concept of psychological detention across two studies. Psychological detention is a concept that refers to a situation in which a person who is interacting with the police feels on a psychological level that their freedom to leave the situation has been taken away. Study 1 presented participants (N = 258) with one of eight videos portraying a mock police interview that varied by Interviewer Dress, Room Set-up, and Free-to-Leave Instructions and were asked questions regarding their perceived freedom to leave. Study 2 will show participants clips from the real-world Russell Williams interrogation and ask their perceptions of (1) why Williams did not leave at various points and (2) how they would feel and react in a similar situation. Study 1 advances the concept of police officers providing voluntariness instructions to their interviewees. Doing this will potentially make the interviewee feel less psychologically detained, therefore, increasing their willingness to cooperate with the process. Further insights gained regarding the perception of psychological detention within voluntary police interviews will be discussed.