Invitation to take part in an online study – call for practitioner research participants

Title of Study: How would you evaluate a witness statement?

Duration: self-paced but no longer than 15 minutes

Researcher: Dr Feni Kontogianni, Prof. Lorraine Hope, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth

Objective of the study

We are seeking fluent or native English practitioners for a study investigating factors that affect the way people perceive and evaluate witness statements.

Seeking your support

Your participation will enable us to examine ways in which we can develop strategies to help decision-making when evaluating interviewees’ reports in police investigations and asylum-seeking applications. You can complete the experiment online anonymously, where you will be asked to read an interview transcript and then answer a short series of questions. 

If you are interested to participate, please follow the link below or scan the QR code:

https://portsmouthpsych.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dmTKqG2xmn0S40B

If you have any questions about the study please contact: feni.kontogianni@port.ac.uk

The iIIRG Annual Report 2016-2018 is now available in the members area of the website.

Nominations are invited for the vacancies of iIIRG Director and Co-director

The iIIRG Executive Committee are seeking nominations for a new Director and Co-director to develop the iIIRG further as a unique network of professional interviewers dedicated to ethical interviewing worldwide.

Applications from an already paired Director/Co-director partnership would be advantageous, however, individual applications are also welcome.

Nominees must be members of the iIIRG.

Full details of the vacancies together with the full application process can be found here in the Members Area of the iIIRG website

If you have any questions relating to the roles or you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact Gavin (g.oxburgh@iiirg.org) and/or Trond (trond.myklebust@iiirg.org) direct who will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Closing date

The closing date for interested parties to submit their nominations is this coming Friday 18th January 2019 and it is expected that the successful candidate/s will take up positions as Director Elect and Co-director Elect by March 2019, taking over full responsibilities during the iIIRG Annual Conference and Masterclass in Stavern, Norway at the end of June 2019 where a formal handover will take place.

Click here to view the vacancies for iIIRG Director and Co-director 

International Survey on Interviewing Uncooperative Eyewitnesses

*** CALL FOR POLICE RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS ***

Some witnesses are uncooperative during the investigative interviews making it difficult for law enforcement agencies to gather complete and accurate information. Uncooperative witnesses are unwilling to be involved in the criminal investigation and refuse to provide valid information to aid the case. Nonetheless, there are ways in which interviewers try to overcome witness reluctance. We would like to learn about your interviewing experience with uncooperative witnesses, and what your perceptions are as an interviewer regarding lack of cooperation.

Could you please help us with our research? Your interviewing experience and expertise can help us understand better how you overcome the challenges of interviewing reluctant witnesses.

All police officers who conduct witness interviews in criminal investigations can take part in this research. You can take part in the survey by clicking on the following link:

https://maastrichtuniversity.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1zyIaVeaOOzKAh7

The study is a short online questionnaire, so it can be easily distributed to any of your colleagues willing to take the survey. Just forward the link above.

This is a project financed by The House of Legal Psychology, with researchers from Maastricht University (the Netherlands), Gothenburg University (Sweden), and University of Portsmouth (United Kingdom).  We received approval from the standing ethical committee of Maastricht University.

If you have any questions or would like more information about this research, you may contact the research team.

Thank you very much for your time and contribution!

Alejandra De La Fuente Vilar

a.delafuentevilar@maastrichtuniversity.nl

Dr. Robert Horselenberg

robert.horselenberg@maastrichtuniversity.nl​​

The deadline for the iIIRG’s Networking Grant is the 28th September.  If you are a member, apply now here: https://5gplvsty7.raisedbybears.co.uk/networking-grants-application/

Please see the below request from one of our academic members:

Dear members of iIIRG,

We are looking for a police force in the UK to collaborate with on our project regarding interviewing of children.

Simply put, our research targets situational conditions that police can apply to instantly improve evidence gathering from vulnerable interviewees. Such situational conditions have been adapted with impressive and immediate outcomes in judicial processes (Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, 2018; The Modernisation of Family Justice, 2016). This research collaboration will develop an intelligent and a practically easy operating policy for using such situational conditions in investigating child sexual abuse cases.

Via our research collaboration interviewers’ involved in interviewing children will develop and improve existing interviewing skills.

More details on the project:

Invitation for research collaboration in an international and national research project: How situational conditions influence police interviews with children victims or witnesses?

What is expecting from a police force: Provide access to police interviews of children victims or witnesses of alleged crime 6 to 11 years old.

Benefits from taking part: Free individual and group feedback/training to interviewers based on interviewers’ performance and the department’s performance compare with national and international standards. Receive an intelligent protocol for handling situational conditions to help improve interviewers’ performance.

Who would need to be involved?: Any department that conducts interviews with children victims or witnesses.

What is the time commitment?: 2 months to get relevant permissions to access the interviews and about 5 months to transcribe the interviews. We are flexible and willing to make changes to minimise your time on this.

What exactly we want?: Access to video recordings of police interviews with children who have been victims or witnesses of alleged crimes (6 to 11 years old). We may need to use your facilities to transcribe the video recordings. We are flexible and willing to make changes to minimise your time on this.

Would the Police be paid for its time?: No.

Deadline for expressing an interest: 31^st of October 2018

Our team has long experience on researching and training on police interviews with children.

Please email for further details M.Kyriakidou@shu.ac.uk

Thank you,

Dr. Marilena Kyriakidou

The iIIRG’s Networking Grant application process is now open! For more information and to apply click here.