Investigative Interviewing on Homicide Investigations

This chapter considers the investigative interview and explores how these interviews take place on homicide investigations. Whilst interviewing within England and Wales will be the focus of the chapter, international practice will also be explored. Predominantly, the chapter will address the interviewing of suspects by the police, although the principles of investigative interviewing have wider application to interviews with victims and witnesses.
Investigative interviewing is influenced by principles of fairness and is underpinned, in England and Wales, by the PEACE framework (Shawyer et al., 2009. Although it has been recognised that the PEACE framework has improved the skill of interviewers, some aspects of this framework have been more successfully incorporated into interviewing practice than others (Clarke and Milne, 2001; Clarke et al., 2011. While it has been suggested that the investigation of homicide be undertaken to the ‘gold standard’ (Brookman and Innes, 2013), there is relatively little research into interviewing on homicide investigations. This chapter explores some of the research in this area, focusing on the use of tactics, question types and interviewing style. It concludes by highlighting areas that require further research, in particular, the interviewing of vulnerable suspects and the role of third parties during the interview.