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Police interviews with terrorist suspects are perhaps one of the most challenging interviews a police officer will experience. The purpose of this paper is to explore the social context of these interviews and the impact that this might have upon the way in which police officers carry them out, including the use of robust, even aggressive tactics.

Risks associated with police interview tactics are identified, including obtaining unreliable information, problems with suspect cooperation and the potential impact upon communities including problems with the perceived legitimacy of the police and community cooperation.

Ways of mitigating the risks are considered including improving police officer cultural awareness, a consideration of interview tactics and the use of ethical interview approaches such as the planning and preparation, engage and explain, account, closure, evaluation interview model and conversation management.

The impact of the use of ethical interviewing is considered from a procedural justice perspective, and the paper illustrates how this approach may give rise to improved reliability of information from interviews and may impact upon perceptions of police legitimacy from communities.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the quality of evidence collected during interview. Current UK national guidance on the interviewing of victims and witnesses recommends a phased approach, allowing the interviewee to deliver their free report before any questioning takes place, and stipulating that during this free report the interviewee should not be interrupted. Interviewers, therefore, often find it necessary during questioning to reactivate parts of the interviewee's free report for further elaboration.

The first section of this paper draws on a collection of police interviews with women reporting rape, and discusses one method by which this is achieved – the indirect quotation of the interviewee by the interviewer – exploring the potential implications for the quality of evidence collected during this type of interview. The second section of the paper draws on the same data set and concerns itself with a particular method by which information provided by an interviewee has its meaning “fixed” by the interviewer.

It is found that “formulating” is a recurrent practice arising from the need to clarify elements of the account for the benefit of what is termed the “overhearing audience” – in this context, the police scribe, CPS, and potentially the Court. Since the means by which this “fixing” is achieved necessarily involves the foregrounding of elements of the account deemed to be particularly salient at the expense of other elements which may be entirely deleted, formulations are rarely entirely neutral. Their production, therefore, has the potential to exert undue interviewer influence over the negotiated “final version” of interviewees' accounts.

The paper highlights the fact that accurate re‐presentations of interviewees' accounts are a crucial tool in ensuring smooth progression of interviews and that re‐stated speech and formulation often have implications for the quality of evidence collected during significant witness interviews.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the role of evidence in the interviewing of suspects.

Analyses were made of 55 interview transcripts about the questioning of suspected sex offenders by officers of an Australian police service.

In 22 per cent of these interviews the suspect actively attempted to discover what the evidence against them was and in 9 per cent the interviewer attempted to learn of the suspect's knowledge of this evidence. Interviewers tended to favour a strategy of first asking the suspect to provide a free account of their role in the alleged crime. If this approach failed to elicit a confession, interviewers would then disclose at least some of the evidence against that suspect. In 93 per cent of the interviews some form of evidence disclosure was made by the interviewer; this was usually achieved by referring to the evidence indirectly rather than explicitly.

Although such disclosures of information seemed to have little impact on suspects' decisions to confess, this study illustrates the important role of evidence in the suspect interviewing process.

The purpose of this paper is to consider a major cause of miscarriages of justice worldwide, namely the police investigative and interviewing process.

This phenomenon is examined through the lens of psychiatric and psychological research findings and subsequent recommendations that have made a significant impact in term of changes to legislation, policy, and practice in the UK.

The paper shows that despite major improvements in this area in the UK there is still no room for complacency, as miscarriages of justice continue to occur both here and worldwide.

This paper calls for researchers to continue to identify the weaknesses in the police investigative and interview process and to propose reform based on their scientific findings.

The paper highlights what remains a somewhat neglected piece of the investigative jigsaw, namely the interviewing of adult victims and witnesses, pinpointing this as an area where transparency and further research is required.

Legislation in many developed nations allows for the video‐recorded interview of a witness made during the investigation to be used as his or her evidence‐in‐chief at trial. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the challenges for the criminal justice system of trying to make one interview meet both investigative and evidential purposes.

Advances in effective police interviewing strategies are outlined and evaluated with regards the implications of presenting evidence elicited in this manner in court.

As with any significant change, the move towards this method of evidence presents challenges. However, using this video record as evidence will ensure that the best evidence is preserved and the jury has access to a transparent record that is more accurate and complete than previously experienced.

The paper acknowledges that concerns over any extra time taken by using video recording must be taken into account, but also balanced against the likely long‐term benefits, not only in fairness to the proceedings but also by easing the process for victims and witnesses.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss two distinct but interrelated areas, namely witness/victim and suspect interviewing, and to argue that both must continue to evolve, suggest how they might do so, and that this process must be driven by emergent theory and contemporary empirical research.

The paper outlines the impact of psychological theory and empirical research to investigative interviewing in recent decades.

It is argued that in order to stay ahead of the game, the field of investigative interviewing (suspect and witness) must continue to evolve in such a manner that not only protects and fosters the important practitioner/academic relationship, but also ensures that future directions are driven by empirical research, with recourse to emergent theory.

The paper outlines the impact of psychological theory and empirical research on investigative interviewing and the consequent enhancement of the interviewing of both suspected offenders and witnesses. The paper demonstrates that working closely together academic research can make a difference, and influence law, policy decisions and training guidelines in order to improve practice.

In the last decade, Australia has seen a series of high‐profile criminal cases come under court and public scrutiny due to improper interviewing practices, prompting a need to review and revise training in interviewing skills. This pattern echoes that seen in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. What followed in the UK was a plethora of research examining different aspects of police interviewing. To date, there has been limited research in Australia on interviewing suspects. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into a large sample of current Australian police officers' attitudes and practices regarding investigative interviewing.

This study involved a survey of current police officers from the Queensland Police Service (n=2,769), collecting data on attitudes with current training and supervision, importance of investigative interviewing and operational skills and competence.

These are discussed in relation to the need for further systematic research into police interviews, improved training and the need for law enforcement organisations and agencies in Australia to implement organisational investigative interviewing strategies.

The paper shows that further systematic research is required to examine “operational” investigative interviewing practices (as opposed to perceptions) in Australia. Consideration also needs to be given to the development of investigative interviewing training frameworks that focus on the experience, skills and previous training of each officer. Moreover, interviewing needs to be recognised as a skill requiring regular maintenance, monitoring and evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Registered Intermediaries are used in the England and Wales to facilitate communication between vulnerable witnesses, victims and police investigators and criminal courts.

The paper focuses on the need for early identification of the vulnerable person so that support measures can be put in place from the outset to assist them to provide their testimony.

It is noted that real progress has been made by the introduction of legislation, specifically the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999), and the uptake by the police service of the subsequent special measures put in place. However, the criminal justice service cannot afford to be complacent as research demonstrates that the police and the courts need to be more effective in managing these issues.

The paper recommends that support measures are widened to include witnesses and suspects being interviewed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, HM Customs and Revenue, the Department of Health and the Department of Work and Pensions.

Based on literature providing evidence that Afrocentric hairstyles (e.g. afros, braids, dreadlocks) of Black women working in professional settings are often associated with negative stereotypes and biases regarding competency and professionalism, this chapter examines the extent to which these biases may be influencing the hairstyle choices of Black women employed in higher education. While academic workplaces tend to be more flexible and informal than non-academic settings, we found many Black women in higher education are, nonetheless, choosing to wear Eurocentric hairstyles. However, choice of hairstyle was influenced by academic discipline, type of institution and level in the university hierarchy.