POLICE/FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS INTO ABUSE, VIOLENCE, and TRAUMA; careful considerations

 POLICE/FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS INTO ABUSE/NEGLECT/TRAUMA and careful considerations

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POLICING AND THE STRESS RESPONSE

    The brain has a miraculous way of keeping us safe when we

are exposed to high stress situations and trauma. There are 

occasions when the reactions, where the victim will become

triggered by flashbacks/reliving, in their minds, of how they

processed the traumatic event.

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HOW ARE MEMORIES FORMED?

  

   Many people wrongly believe that memory works like a 

recording device. Memory, in fact, does not work this way.

Human memory does not capture every detail accurately

or permanently. Memory is more of a construction process.

When we remember something, we are not playing a single

recording back, but, rather, taking many pieces of experience

to construct what seems to us as one single recording.

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THE QUESTIONS ARE WHAT MATTERS

  Research shows if you ask someone, "how fast do you think

the two cars were going when they COLLIDED into each other?", 

will answer with higher estimated speeds than if the question

were asked in a less aggressive/more neutral way ie: "how fast

were the cars going when hit each other?". Research also shows

that the more aggressive the questioning, the more likely one

is to get inaccurate information about the details and what really

happened. For example, the way the questions was phrased the

first time, people are not only to overestimate the speed of the

vehicles in the accident, they, too, are more likely to add the detail

that they saw broken glass at the scene; even when there was

none.

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SUGGESTION VS. NEUTRAL CAN ALTER MEMORY

  Suggestive/leading questions can truly alter responses.

Likewise, witness memories can be contaminated by talking

to other witnesses on the scene before the police arrive.

It is children who are often rendered the most vulnerable to

leading questions and suggestibility. This is why Forensic

Child Specialists are often brought in to question children

in particularly traumatic situations. Using a specially trained

person in this interview role has shown to yield the most accurate

results. They are best equipped to gather information in a

non-suggestive way. The goal of such questioning is to illicit 

a detailed narrative, from the child, in their OWN words.

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EVEN ASKING NEUTRAL QUESTIONS CAN FAIL

   In divorce cases, involving children, it's not uncommon for one

or both of the divorcing parents to engage in "divorce warfare."

Divorce warfare can range from fabricating, exaggerating, claims 

of abuse and neglect, against the other parent to gain advantage

in the custody battle for the children. Even in these cases,

it is recommended that Forensic Child Interrogator be brought

in to specifically question the child in an age-appropriate and

neutral way. Forensic evaluators have their own designed

techniques to mitigate lies, and misunderstandings.

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SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONING CAN CREATE FALSE VIVID MEMORIES

  Children can be given  false, yet vivid memories, of things

that never happened to them. It is clear, from the research, that

children are easily tricked/manipulated through many forms

of suggestibility.

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STRESS CAN IMPACT MEMORY

   Acute stress imparts the formation of memories. Under a 

stressful event, stress hormones are released that can actually

damage the accuracy of memory. The best way for police to 

decipher fact from fiction is to ask the subject if they see

themselves in the "third person"; as someone outside looking in.

If so, typically, this is evidence of an implanted, untrue, but,

nonetheless, vivid memory that the child is recalling.