Interviewing the special population and in this scenario the elderly usually poses a great challenge to detectives and investigators due to a number of factors. Collection of evidence especially through interview of witnesses is critical to the criminal justice system and when the complainant or a witness happens to be an elderly person or persons, proper techniques of interviewing them have to be employed to ensure that no stone is left unturned.
About 13 percent of the population of the United States of America comprises elderly persons aged 65 years old and over. This is approximately 40 million people and for detectives commutes to facing a number of cases which in one way or another involve elderly person. With this fact in consideration detectives have to employ special art and skills when interviewing an elderly complainant and/or witness.
For a detective to efficiently and effectively interview an elderly person, he ought to appreciate certain facts about the former. First, a detective must understand that each and every case involving an elderly person could be unique and that he (detective) ought not to be prejudicial despite the fact that cases involving the elderly should be treated with an abundance of caution.
Detectives ought to understand that with age come certain problems such as poor eyesight, loss of hearing, memory loss and a wide spectrum of other diminished capacities. It, therefore, means that elderly persons can easily raise false alarms. For example, an elderly woman can keep her purse somewhere then forget where she kept it and then call the police to report a break in. An elderly person may also misapprehend the circumstances and call the police to report it as a crime. With memory loss, an elderly person may report an incident and by the time of interviewing by the detectives, he or she may have forgotten facts important to such an investigation.
Based on the foregoing, the major challenges that arise when interviewing an elder person arises from the loss of memory and other diminished cognitive capacities. Moreover, such persons have a propensity to tell a lot of stories and as such often veer of the subject of the interview. This, therefore, means that a detective interrogating an elderly person ought to have an open mind and ask simplified questions which are directed slowly. In order to strike a balance between getting all information relevant to the subject case and avoiding unnecessary stories, a detective ought to ask open-ended questions while providing guidance where the subject starts veering off from the facts in issue. Asking the open ended questions and avoiding leading questions enables the subject to give his or her account. Leading questions may end up with the subject agreeing to facts which he or she may not have perceived. Guiding the subject is intended to maintain him or her to the exact point of his or her account whenever he or she starts veering off the relevant facts in issue. However, at the same time it ought to be done in a way that does not confuse the subject.
The interview with Edith Peters as captured in the scenario could have been done better. Edith gave a lot of information that was not directly relevant or that answered the questions asked. In addition she went on to add irrelevant facts and as such a lot of time was taken up by the interview. For example, when she was asked if she knew her neighbours the Nelsons, she answered to the effect that she and her husband bought the house in 1956 after they got married and that she had lived in that place all her adult life and that she knew everyone in her neighbourhood. In essence, the answer necessary was a yes and she ought to have been interjected and asked again in a manner emphasizing on the Nelsons. Therefore, asking open ended questions with guidance would have made the interview efficient, effective and time conscious.
In conclusion, the art and skill of interviewing the elderly witnesses and/or complainants should take up the objectivity similar to that in cross-examination, only that the same is to be conducted slowly and with a friendly and understanding tone so as to ensure that the information needed is accurately extracted and at the same time doing so without harassing the elderly. In some cases it would be necessary to inform the subject beforehand to answer only the specific questions asked in the interest of time considering that some situations are usually volatile and the information is needed fast.
References
Herring, J. (2011). Criminal Law. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Samaha, D. (2010). Criminal Law. New York: Cengage Learning.
Weigend, T. (2006). Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure. Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, 2(1), 214-227.
