@article{ref1,
title="The effect of specialist training on sexual assault investigators' questioning and use of relationship evidence",
journal="Journal of police and criminal psychology",
year="2023",
author="Tidmarsh, Patrick and Sharman, Stefanie and Hamilton, Gemma",
volume="38",
number="2",
pages="318-327",
abstract="Two studies examined the immediate and longer-term impact of specialist training on sexual assault investigators' use of best-practice questions and relationship evidence. Investigators completed mock suspect interviews immediately and 9-12 months following a 4-week specialist course that concentrated on the Whole Story approach to sexual offence investigations. The training had an immediate positive impact on investigators' use of non-sexual grooming details, and a long-term positive impact on investigators' use of relationship details. It also increased the use of open questions and decreased the use of specific questions, with performance sustained for open-depth questions and specific yes/no questions. Specialist training can improve investigators' ability to adopt a narrative interviewing approach and ask about relationship details, yet skill erosion remains an issue that future training programs need to address. Incorporating relationship evidence into investigative interviews in an open-ended manner may be a key strategy for improving understandings about victim-offender dynamics in sexual offence cases, which could have implications for attrition and conviction rates.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0882-0783",
doi="10.1007/s11896-021-09446-x",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11896-021-09446-x"
}