jus 201 conducting an interview

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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JUS 201

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Philosophy

Date

Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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Uploaded by desireephillips87

As the investigator for a case involving a husband murdering his wife and I am very sympathetic to the victim to the point that it may contaminate my interview, I don't think there's any shame in asking another investigator who is not involved in the case to do the interview for me if they are willing. The reason behind this is one, if I'm overly sympathetic to the victim I'm not doing them any justice by allowing emotion to taint my interview, two I'm allowing the suspect and his attorney to build a defense that I was too emotionally charged and "after their client." If I must be the one to do the interview, the first thing I would do is take some deep breaths and calm myself before entering the room with the suspect. I would keep in mind that getting this murderer to confess brings justice to my victim. I would ask open-ended questions and come off as friendly. This would prevent me from imposing my views or opinions on the case (Sandoval, 2003). Some techniques I could incorporate to prompt the husband to talk would be to have a relaxed posture, speak calmly and softly, and work on building rapport in a relaxed environment (Sandoval, 2003). The more comfortable he is with me talking to him, the more comfortable he will be with telling me information. I would also downplay the husband's involvement and try to convince him we are trying to rule him out, and as the husband we need to get as much information about the victim as possible. This could play on his emotions in case he is experiencing remorse for his crime. Some questions I would ask during my interview include:  Has your wife ever mentioned having issues with someone?  Where were you at the time of the crime so I can try to rule you out quickly?  Have you and your wife had any recent struggles or stressors?  Do you or your wife have any medical issues?

 As far as you know, what was your wife doing on the day she was killed? What were you scheduled to do?  Have you noticed anything missing from your house?  Questions based on his body language and follow-ups to his responses. As the interview continues and he starts to break down I would ask questions like you didn't mean to hurt her, did you? The situation just got out of hand and it was an accident, right? After you hurt her, I bet you tried to do the right thing and help her but it was too late, wasn't it? (these types of questions sound morbid and horrible and trust me the sex offender ones are even worse, but these questions can help the suspect cope and admit to committing a murder without really realizing that they just confessed).

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