3/18/2024 0 Comments Written witness statementThe written statement, produced when the interviewer assimilates the information provided by the witness in the course of the interview, is also key in any resultant court-case, informing legal strategy and likely serving as a memory aid for the witness. The information provided initially as part of the investigation not only informs investigative decision making (e.g., what lines of inquiry to pursue and prioritize), it is also central to legal decision-making, for example, whether to proceed with the case (or not). Traditionally, witnesses provide their accounts at two separate points of the criminal justice process first when interviewed during the investigation and later when giving evidence during criminal proceedings ( Westera et al., 2011). Consequently, considerable attention has been paid to developing techniques that elicit reliable, relevant, and detailed information from witnesses during interviews ( Gabbert et al., 2016 Milne and Bull, 2016). Witnesses are central to most criminal cases indeed, some have argued they provide the most critical evidence in court ( Zander and Henderson, 1993). This exploratory work highlights an important area for future research focus. Statements contained numerous errors including omissions, distortions, and the inclusion of information not mentioned in the verbal interview. A coding protocol was devised to assess the consistency of information between what was said by the interviewee in the verbal interview and what was reported in the written statement. Transcribed witness/victim interviews ( N = 15) were compared to the resultant written statements produced by the interviewing officer and signed as an accurate record by the interviewee. This exploratory research examined the quality of evidential statements generated in real world investigations. Most countries compile evidence from witnesses and victims manually, whereby the interviewer assimilates what the interviewee says during the course of an interview to produce an evidential statement.
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