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Urgent issues and prospects at the intersection of culture, memory, and witness interviews: Exploring the challenges for research and practice

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Change log

Authors

Anakwah, Nkansah 
Antfolk, Jan 
Brubacher, Sonja P 
Flowe, Heather 

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pThe pursuit of justice increasingly relies on productive interactions between witnesses and investigators from diverse cultural backgrounds during investigative interviews. To date, the role of cultural context has largely been ignored by researchers in the field of investigative interviewing, despite repeated requests from practitioners and policymakers for evidence‐based guidance for the conduct of interviews with people from different cultures. Through examining cultural differences in human memory and communication and considering specific contextual challenges for investigative interviewing through the lens of culture, this review and associated commentaries highlight the scope for considering culture and human diversity in research on, and the practice of, investigative interviewing with victims, witnesses, and other sources. Across 11 commentaries, contributors highlight the importance of considering the role of culture in different investigative interviewing practices (e.g., rapport building, questioning techniques) and contexts (e.g., gender‐based violence, asylum seeking, child abuse), address common areas of cultural mismatch between interviewer–interviewee expectations, and identify critical future routes for research. We call for an increased focus in the investigative interviewing literature on the nature and needs of our global community and encourage constructive and collaborative discussion between researchers and practitioners from around the world to better identify specific challenges and work together towards evidence‐based solutions.</jats:p>

Description

Funder: UK Home Office and security and intelligence agencies


Funder: KU Leuven; Id: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004040


Funder: FWO Research Project

Keywords

5201 Applied and Developmental Psychology, 4805 Legal Systems, 44 Human Society, 48 Law and Legal Studies, 4402 Criminology, 52 Psychology, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Journal Title

Legal and Criminological Psychology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1355-3259
2044-8333

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley
Sponsorship
Economic and Social Research Council (ES/N009614/1)