The quality of question types in Swedish police interviews with young suspects of serious crimes
| Author | Ann-Christin Cederborg,Ulrika Winerdal,Johanna Lindholm |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X18770915 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
Article
The quality of question
types in Swedish police
interviews with young
suspects of serious crimes
Ulrika Winerdal, Ann-Christin Cederborg
and Johanna Lindholm
Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University,
Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract
This study explores how juvenile offenders in Sweden between the age of 15 and 17 are
interviewed by police officers when suspected of homicide crimes. The quality of
question types was assessed in 47 authentic interviews. The findings show that the police
officers used option-posing and suggestive questions most frequently and social pressure
was used in three predominating ways: to confront, to challenge and to appeal for a
confession. The conclusion is that the police officers’ question style to a large extent
contradicts recommendations for how to interview children. There is therefore a need
to develop an evidence-based interview practice for interviewing young suspects.
Keywords
Investigative interviewing, juvenile offenders, homicide crimes
Introduction
A police investigation has the purpose of shedding light on a criminal offence, and
interviews with the suspect are at times the only way to discover knowledge about what
happened (Gudjonsson and Pearse, 2011; Kassin and Gudjonsson, 2004). A confession
from the suspect can therefore be decisive when trying to solve and close a criminal case
(Moston and Engelberg, 1993; Moston et al., 1992; Williamson, 1993). However, elicit-
ing a confession can be challenging when the crime is severe (Soukara et al., 2009;
Corresponding author:
Ulrika Winerdal, Stockholm University, Department of Child and Youth Studies, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
Email: ulrika.winerdal@buv.su.se
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2019, Vol. 92(2) 136–149
ªThe Author(s) 2018
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/0032258X18770915
journals.sagepub.com/home/pjx
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