Who are you? - interviewing techniques

Developing interview techniques is the next stage of offender profiling, this is where forensic psychologists use the developed profile to highlight weaknesses that may encourage the offender to talk or confess. This technique is also used to put the offender on edge or to make them nervous so that they become flustered and cannot keep their lies straight. The trick to conducting any kind of interview is establishing a rapport with the individual being interviewed. This is because if an individual neither likes nor trusts you they are extremely unlikely to take you into their confidence, which defeats the purpose of any kind of interview as the aim is to gather information. But, it is not always clear if the individual that is being interviewed is a witness, a suspect, a co-offender or simply an innocent bystander. So, it is therefore the task of the interviewer to decipher the verbal and nonverbal responses and make the connections and decide what role the interviewee will play in the investigation. The best known interview technique to use to catch out a liar or someone who is editing the information they are providing, is to present the interviewee with a series of accusatory behaviour increasing questions, because often when an individual is lying they display an increased amount of tension and anxiety which an interviewer can pick up on for example they may beging fidgeting or sit on their hands and hit their leg against the table.
However, it is very important for the interviewer to remain impartial throughout they should not display emotions such as anger, shock, disgust or disbelief. This is because it would hinder them in their job as their aim is to get to the truth, and if the interviewer was to show their true feelings most likely of disgust this would put the suspect on the defensive so they would not tell the interviewer anything. The truth could be gained through sympathising with the suspect so that they believe that their state of mind is understood by the interviewer. If the rapport with the suspect is strong enough they may begin to believe that the interviewer would have acted in the same way and that they are not alone in their anti social behaviour