However, forensic experts are driven by the job pressure to book criminals and serve justice. Therefore, when conducting interviews, they may lead the respondents and push them to make a confession. These incidences are not rare as there are reports of people convicted of crimes they did not do, only for the real perpetrators to confess later, sometimes after a decade.
Forensic investigators are tasked to ensure that criminals are brought to book. They use tactics such interviewing witnesses, to corroborate evidence with what they have from the scene as well as what other witnesses say. In this case, the investigator was seeking information and he used leading questions which ensured that he got information from the interviewee.
The use of leading questions served its purpose well as it provided that if the interviewee were knowledgeable about the crime, he would volunteer information while answering the questions. Also, if he were not knowledgeable of the offense, he would not competently respond to the questions, therefore, showing that he was innocent or unaware of the crime.
However, forensic interviews have a way of working against the interviewers sometimes. That is why sometimes the interviews lead to an innocent person being charged with crimes they did not perform. Forensic interviewers make the people anxious, and that triggers false responses in the hope that the interview ends soon. In such occurrences, interviewers can get false confessions which are used in court.
References
Baxter, A. M. (2007). Interrogative pressure in simulated forensic interviews: The effects of negative feedback. British Journal of Psychology Vol 98 Issue 3, 455-465.
Youngs, D. (2013). Behavioural Analysis of Crime : Studies in David Canter's Investigative Psychology. Burlington, VT, USA: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
