Reviews : Offenders Profiling Series: Volume 1 - Interviewing and Deception David Canter and Laurence Alison (eds) Ashgate, 2000; pp232; £19.95, pbk ISBN 1840144912
| Author | Jeremy Tudway |
| Published date | 01 December 2000 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455050004700425 |
| Date | 01 December 2000 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
294
System,
however,
that
bleakness
also
explains
why
this
book
makes
such
necessary
reading.
Mark
Drakeford
Senior
Lecturer,
University
of
Wales
Offenders
Profiling
Series:
Volume
1 -
Interviewing
and
Deception
David
Canter
and
Laurence
Alison
(eds)
Ashgate,
2000;
pp232;
£19.95,
pbk
ISBN
1840144912
This
volume
is
separated
into
10
chapters,
each
written
by
notable
and
highly
respected
authors
and
researchers
in
their
field.
The
series
preface
introduces
some
of
the
concepts
associated
with
so-called
’offender
profiling’
and
highlights
the
disparity
between
the
public
perception
and
the
scientific
practice
of
what
has
come
to
be
seen
by
many
as
a
somewhat
archaic
practice.
Indeed,
it
is
refreshing
to
note
that
the
introductory
paragraphs
relate
to
the
use
of
many
of
the
fundamental
principles
by
a
wide
range
of
professionals,
and
indicate
that
ignorance
is
not
purely
within
the
province
of
the
layperson.
Chapter
1
addresses
the
weighty
question
of
investigative
decision
making
and
views
the
investigative
cycle
in
three
distinct
but
continuous
processes:
information
collection,
investigative
inference
and
the
implementation
of
investigative.actions.
Kebble
and
Wagstaff
evaluate
the
research
evidence
to
support
the
effectiveness
of
the
cognitive
interview.
This
much
adopted,
although
often
misdescribed,
process
is
very
dominant
amongst
workers
in
forensic
fields
and
the
chapter
deals
with
the
development
of
the
cognitive
interview
from
its
original
inception,
i.e.
to
reinstate
the
mental
context,
to
report
everything,
recall
events
in
different
orders
and
change
perspectives.
There
is
a
very
thorough
analysis
of
the
limitations
of
standard
interviewing
and
the
effectiveness
of
research
into
the
use
of
the
cognitive
interview.
Although
the
chapter
is
optimistic
in
its
assessment
of
the
future for
the
cognitive
interview,
there
are
some
rather
depressing
elements
that
indicate
that
one
of
the
major
barriers
to
its
adoption
as
a
standard
practice
seemed
to
be
associated
with
time
constraints.
The
next
chapter
evaluates
the
use
of
cognitive
interviewing
in
the
construction
of
facial
composites,
and
particularly
addresses
itself
to
the
use
of
facial
composite
photo-fit
pictures
when
interviewing
victims
or
witnesses.
The
chapter
opens
with
a
description
of
the
cognitive
interview
process
and
comparative
studies
in
which
trained
and
untrained
interviewers
attempted
to
elicit
information
and
were
evaluated
for
accuracy.
The
remaining
chapters
in
the
book
deal
with
various
aspects
of
interrogation
and
verbal
deception
behaviour,
including
a
comparison
between
’British
and
American
Interrogation
Strategies’ by
Sear
and
Williamson.
Gregory’s
chapter
on
the
’Construction
and
Content
of
Genuine
versus
Fake
Suicide
Notes’
contains
valuable
information.
Gregory
identifies
five
basic
factors
that
draw
suicide
notes
together
and
may
enable
researchers
or
investigators
to
discriminate
between
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