A facet analysis of police officers' self-reported use of suspect-interviewing strategies and their Discomfort with Ambiguity

✍ Scribed by Laurence Alison; Mark Kebbell; Joane Leung

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 165 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/acp.1408

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This study sought to establish: (i) whether tactics in police suspects interviews can be represented by two interacting facets (cognitive/emotional and coercive/facilitative) and (ii) whether a preference for coercive combinations are positively associated with Discomfort with Ambiguity (Kruglanski, 1989). Ninety‐nine police interviewers from the Crime Wing Headquarters of the Hong Kong Police completed a self‐report survey of preferred suspect interviewing tactics, as well as Chiu, Morris, Hong, and Menon (2000) version of the Need For Closure scale. Smallest Space Analysis (Guttman, 1968) revealed a duplex structure of cognitive and affective coercive/facilitative themes. Moreover, self‐report results indicated that high scorers on Discomfort with Ambiguity were more willing to use a wider variety of tactics (including more coercive cognitive and emotional tactics) than low scorers (who were more prudent in their constraint and willingness to stick with facilitative cognitive and emotional tactics). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.