Weekly Blog 7 - Interview techniques

Before presenting any evidence in a court of law, forensic accountants must abide by the strict rules that govern it. On the topic of evidence gained from an interview, the interviewer must comply to certain policies and procedures, not only to avoid a false confession but to avoid your evidence deemed inadmissible.

Firstly, the interviewer should follow the criteria set out in DEEWR, Australian Government (2012) Conducting Investigative interviews before conducting an interview, gather all information and evidence, assess condition of the interviewee and the corresponding safeguards, then implementing an interview technique. A worldwide approach to interviews, the REID technique is one of the most successful methods.

Set out in three phases, Phase 1 is all about fact finding, talk about background information on the case, to build a rapport and make the interviewee feel comfortable. The second phase is where the interviewer analyses the verbal and non-verbal cues through non-accusatory questions to establish a baseline for when the suspect is telling the truth. The third phase, accusatory in nature, is to ask provoking questions that would elicit a change in body behaviour to detect deception by analysing the verbal and non-verbal cues (Korda Mentha, 2011).

(Plant, 2013)

I think that the REID technique is effective because people will always have a sign of when they are lying, individuals are not inherently born to lie and giving that most white collar crimes are high status people, they grew up in a developed society. An alternative approach is the Motivational Interviewing, this uses the same concept as REID in rapport building but focuses more on empathy and cognitive dissonance to get a confession out of someone.

Relevant links

More on REID technique:
                https://www.reid.com/

More on Motivational Interview technique:
                http://www.motivationalinterviewing.org/

References

DEEWR, Australian Government. (2012). PUAPOLIV004A Conduct investigative interviews. Retrieved 29 April, 2015 from
                https://training.gov.au/TrainingComponentFiles/PUA00/PUAPOLIV004A_R1.pdf

Korda Mentha. (2011). Advanced interview techniques. Retrieved 29 April, 2015 from
                http://www.kordamentha.com/docs/for-publications/1105-      AdvancedInterviewTechniques.pdf?Status=Master

Plant, J. (2013). 3 ways to build rapport with a potential new client. Retrieved 22 May, 2015 from
                http://accountmanagementskills.com/3-ways-to-build-rapport-with-a-potential-new-client/