The Witness-Aimed First Account (WAFA): A new technique for interviewing autistic witnesses and victims

Forensic interviews conducted with autistic adults in Japan: a review of the literature and directions for future research

The interviewing of victims, witnesses and suspects is important in helping resolve criminal investigations. In Japan, developments have recently occurred in the training of the police and their public prosecutors in these key tasks. Whilst literature exists on autism in Japan, studies examining police/public prosecutor interviews with autistic adults conducted in that country (and indeed, any other) remain scant. As elsewhere in the world, identification of those who manifest characteristics prevalent on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) scale, has been found to be problematical to criminal justice professionals. To help address this deficit in understanding, we provide an overview of the literature concerning contemporary understanding of the challenges facing autistic adults as they attempt to reveal their verbal accounts, as well as suggested techniques when interviewing adults on the ASD scale during criminal investigations, offering lessons learned from research conducted around the world that provide potentially promising solutions for Japan.

Police suspect interviews with autistic adults: The impact of truth telling versus deception on testimony

Investigative interviews by police are socially and cognitively demanding encounters, likely presenting significant challenges to those on the autism spectrum. Behavioral and communication differences mean that autistic people may also be more likely to be perceived as deceptive in the context of an investigative interview. In the present study, 32 autistic and 33 (age and IQ-matched) non-autistic adults took part in a novel virtual burglary scenario in either an 'innocent' or 'guilty' condition. In a subsequent mock-police interview, innocent suspects were instructed to tell the truth about what they did, while guilty suspects were instructed to lie in order to convince the interviewer of their innocence. In the mock-interviews, innocent autistic mock-suspects reported fewer details that would support their innocence than non-autistic mock-suspects, although both innocent and guilty autistic and non-autistic mock-suspects reported similar levels of investigation-relevant information and had similar levels of statement-evidence consistency. In post-interview questionnaires, innocent and guilty autistic mock-suspects self-reported greater difficulty in understanding interview questions, higher anxiety and perceived the interview as less supportive than non-autistic participants. Implications for investigative interviewing with autistic suspects and cues to deception are discussed.

Supporting autistic adults' episodic memory recall in interviews: The role of executive functions, theory of mind, and language abilities

Autistic people have difficulties recalling episodic memories, including retrieving fewer or less specific and detailed memories compared to typically developing people. However, the ability to effectively recall episodic memories is crucial in many real-world contexts, such as the criminal justice system, medical consultations, and employment interviews. Autistic people’s episodic memory difficulties are most apparent when open, unsupportive questions are used. The ‘Task Support Hypothesis’ posits that autistic people can recall as much information as typically developing people with more supportive questioning. Alongside problems retrieving episodic memories, autistic people also experience difficulties with executive functioning, theory of mind, and expressive language. The current study aimed to assess the impact of these abilities on recall in two previous studies by the authors that compared autistic and typically developing adults on recall specificity in police, healthcare, and employment interviews, and recall quality in employment interviews under unsupported and supported questioning. Under unsupported questioning only, autistic adults’ episodic autobiographical memory recall specificity was predicted by expressive language, whereas for the typically developing group, only theory of mind was a significant predictor. No other predictors were significant across the study. Implications for the task support hypothesis are discussed.

Interviewing alleged victims with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities and autism: A field study of police-investigated cases of physical and sexual abuse in a Norwegian national sample

BACKGROUND

People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) or autism are at great risk of being victims of physical and sexual abuse. This study uses transcriptions of real-life investigative interviews to examine the interview techniques (e.g. question type) used in investigative interviews of these groups of alleged victims.

METHODS

A national sample of transcribed investigative interviews (N = 96) of alleged victims with mild ID (n = 48, age 5-70 years old), moderate ID (n = 18, age 14-43 years old) and autism (n = 16, age 5-50 years old) was analysed.

RESULTS

The study shows a preponderance of alleged sexual offences (70.7%) and reveals that open-ended questions account for only 2.6% of the total number of questions asked. The interviewers relied heavily on yes/no (53.4%) and directive questions (32.2%). Suggestive questions (8.6%) were frequently used.

CONCLUSIONS

The use of question type varied considerably within and across the diagnostic group. The study reveals the need for a more in-depth analysis of variables that influence investigative interviews of people with cognitive impairments.