How guilty and innocent suspects perceive the police and themselves: suspect interviews in Germany

Purpose: Suspects are central participants of a police interview and can provide crucial information on the interview interactions with the interviewers. This study examined how the way suspects perceive interviews relates to (a) their reported status of being guilty or innocent and (b) their decision to confess or deny. Methods: A total of 250 convicted offenders completed a two-part questionnaire on their perceptions during the most recent suspect interview in which they had confessed to or denied a crime they had committed (Part 1) or not committed (Part 2). Results: Participants reported a total of 334 police interviews – 223 for which they reported being guilty and 111 for which they reported being innocent. An exploratory factor analysis showed that three latent factors described how they viewed the interviewers and themselves: Respectful-Open Behaviors (non-accusatorial interviewer behaviour, and no pressure in suspects), Confession-Oriented Tactics by the interviewer (minimization and maximization tactics), and Suspects’ Psychological Distress (insecurity, fear, and lack of self-confidence). Suspects perceived less Psychological Distress and less Respectful-Open Behaviors in reported innocent (vs. guilty) interview situations. In reported guilty interview situations, confessions were associated positively with Respectful-Open Behaviors and Suspects’ Psychological Distress, whereas denials were associated positively with Confession-Oriented Tactics. Innocent interview situations showed a positive correlation between confessions and Suspects’ Psychological Distress. Conclusions: In this study, suspects deliver an important message to the police and the legal system: The findings substantiate the benefits of an open-minded interviewing approach, and fail to support a confession-oriented interrogation approach

Adverse childhood experiences and personality functioning interact substantially in predicting depression, anxiety, and somatization

Etiological theories on the development of psychopathology often incorporate adverse childhood experiences (ACE) as an important contributing factor. Recent studies suggest personality functioning (PF; i.e., stability of the self and interpersonal relationships) as an important transdiagnostic construct that could be useful in better understanding when persons with ACE do (not) develop psychopathological symptoms. A representative sample of N = 2363 was assessed by questionnaires on ACE, PF (Level of Personality Functioning Scale—Brief Form 2.0), and current symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization (Brief Symptom Inventory 18). The interaction between ACE and PF on symptoms was investigated using multiple group models and Bayesian structural equation modeling. ACE were positively associated with psychopathology and PF impairments. The interaction effect between ACE and PF explained incremental variance in current symptoms, ranging from 26% for somatization to 49% for depression with the complete model explaining up to 91% of the latent variance in psychopathology. Our findings indicate a diathesis–stress model with PF as a resource or resilience that may buffer against the development of symptoms in the face of adversity. Treatments of depression and anxiety targeting self and interpersonal functioning therefore may lead to improvements in resilience and relapse prevention. [Correction added on 15 March 2023, after first online publication: Level of Personality Functioning Scale—Brief Form has been replaced to Level of Personality Functioning Scale—Brief Form 2.0

Items of the unpublished Self-Report Questionnaire “Cognitions and Emotions about Child Sexual Abuse (CE-CSA)"

The questionnaire “Cognitions and Emotions about Child Sexual Abuse (CE-CSA)” is under current development and has not yet been published. Here, we briefly summarize the intention and background of the questionnaire along with a preprint of the item set

Cognitions and Emotions about Child Sexual Abuse (CECSA): Development of a Self-Report Measure to Predict Interviewer Bias

We present the development and validation of a self-report instrument on Cognitions and Emotions about Child Sexual Abuse (CECSA). Three subscales, consisting of 23 items in total, were developed in a sample of 801 humanities students by means of exploratory factor analysis and Ant Colony Optimization, an automated item selection strategy used to simultaneously optimize model fit, reliability, and predictive validity. The “Naïve Confidence” subscale reflects overestimating one's ability to recognize abused children and overestimating the accuracy of children’s abuse reports, the "Emotional Reactivity" subscale measures the intensity of one's emotional reactions towards the topic of child sexual abuse (CSA), and the "Justice System Distrust" subscale covers distrusting the justice system’s ability to prosecute CSA cases. The CECSA showed adequate model fit and good internal consistencies. Bivariate correlations with other self-report measures demonstrated convergent validity. Importantly, all three subscales predicted biased evaluations towards the abuse hypothesis in scenarios of children displaying unspecific behavioral problems. This indicates predictive validity of the CECSA as an instrument measuring vulnerability for interviewer bias. The CECSA can be used to assess individual training needs of professionals who conduct interviews or conversations with children about abuse suspicions and may help to develop and evaluate interviewer trainings

Adverse childhood experiences and personality functioning interact substantially in predicting depression, anxiety, and somatization

AbstractEtiological theories on the development of psychopathology often incorporate adverse childhood experiences (ACE) as an important contributing factor. Recent studies suggest personality functioning (PF; i.e., stability of the self and interpersonal relationships) as an important transdiagnostic construct that could be useful in better understanding when persons with ACE do (not) develop psychopathological symptoms. A representative sample of N = 2363 was assessed by questionnaires on ACE, PF (Level of Personality Functioning Scale—Brief Form 2.0), and current symptoms of depression, anxiety, and somatization (Brief Symptom Inventory 18). The interaction between ACE and PF on symptoms was investigated using multiple group models and Bayesian structural equation modeling. ACE were positively associated with psychopathology and PF impairments. The interaction effect between ACE and PF explained incremental variance in current symptoms, ranging from 26% for somatization to 49% for depression with the complete model explaining up to 91% of the latent variance in psychopathology. Our findings indicate a diathesis–stress model with PF as a resource or resilience that may buffer against the development of symptoms in the face of adversity. Treatments of depression and anxiety targeting self and interpersonal functioning therefore may lead to improvements in resilience and relapse prevention. [Correction added on 15 March 2023, after first online publication: Level of Personality Functioning Scale—Brief Form has been replaced to Level of Personality Functioning Scale—Brief Form 2.0 ]</p

How to prepare for conversations with children about suspicions of sexual abuse? Evaluation of an interactive virtual reality training for student teachers

http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347 Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschunghttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100010571 Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Dienststelle Berli