Interviewing Witnesses

During an investigation, much of a detective’s time is spent interviewing witnesses and questioning suspects. If everyone tells the same story, a detective can feel confident that he or she has learned the truth about a crime. But often people lie, or they believe they are telling the truth but are mistaken. Try the following activity to see how good you are at interviewing witnesses.

Materials

- Copy of the picture on crime scene
- Watch or clock
- Pen or pencil
- Notebook
- Several helpers

Procedure

1. Have all of your helpers but one leave the room.
2. Give a copy of the picture on crime scene to the helper.
3. Using the watch or clock, give your helper 1 minute to look at the picture, than take the picture away.
4. Ask your helper what he or she remembers about the picture. Ask questions like “How many people were in the picture?” or ”Was there anything unusual that you noticed?” Record the answers in your notebook.
5. Repeat the procedure with each of the remaining helpers, making sure that the helpers do not hear each other’s answer to your questions.
6. Compare the comments that the helpers made. How many details were mentioned? Did some statements conflict with other statements?

More Fun Stuff to Do

Stage a pretend crime during a party or family gathering, and see wether any of the guests can figure out who did it. You could have someone “steal” some books off a shelf or remove a candlestick. At some point after the crime, choose several guests as witnesses and question each in a separated interview. How did their observations compare? Were their observations good enough for them to figure out who took the books?

Explanation

When interviewing witnesses to a crime, there are several questions that detectives ask to get a description of and information about the suspect. Some typical questions include: What is the sex, race, and approximate age of the suspect? What is his or her height, weight, color of hair and eyes, and complexion? Did you notice any physical scars or marks? Did the suspect wear glasses or have facial hair? What was the voice like? What was the suspect wearing? What did the suspect do?
Interviewers must listen for unexpected information. Often the question will cause the person who is being interviewd to implicate another person, meaning the person will reveal, by accident or on purpose, that someone else was involved in the crime.

Interviewers should remain impartial when they interview witnesses. This means they should not reveal their own opinions or feelings during the interview. Also must be careful not to lead a witness to say something that is not true.

Interviewing witnesses and other methods of crime detection are similar to scientific investigation in general. Scientist brings their own thougts and opinions to their experiments. Often they want an experiment to turn out a particular way, so it is difficult for them to remain impartial. This explains why two scientists, seeing the same information, can come to two opposite conclusions. Each bends the information to support his or her own views. Whether investigating crimes orperforming experiments, scientists must always keep an open mind and be ready for unexpected data.