Crime victims' experiences of police interviews and their inclination to provide or omit information

This research concerns crime victims’ experiences of Swedish police interviews and their inclination to provide or omit information in such interviews. A group of rape or aggravated assault victims, consisting of 178 women and men, answered a questionnaire in this explorative study, which revealed that police officer behaviour in interviews was mainly calm and obliging. Results from factor analyses show that these crime victims perceived police attitudes to be characterised by either dominance or humanity. While being interviewed, crime victims either responded with feelings of anxiety or feelings of being respected, the latter of which encouraged them to be cooperative. Logistic regressions revealed that interviews marked by dominance and responses of anxiety are significantly associated with crime victims who omit information. Interviews marked by humanity, responses of feeling respected, and cooperation are significantly associated with crime victims who provide information.