Investigative interviewing as a therapeutic jurisprudential approach

In the idea of therapeutic jurisprudence, law enforcement actors are seen as therapeutic agents promoting crime victims’ and suspects’ psychological well-being in legal procedures. Contrary to psychological well-being bad demeanour or behaviour of law enforcement actors may cause a secondary victimization and obstruct legal procedures, and as a consequence of such obstructions be anti-therapeutic. An overwhelming majority of the special squad police officers have perceived, during their entire career, high stress due to exposure to different events in patrol as well as investigative duty. Reactions from such exposure have serious negative impacts on the police officers’ psychological well-being, and may also affect the interviewing approach they adopt. This paper discusses the definition and measurement of psychological well-being in relation to the perspective of investigative interviewing. Three studies regarding crime victims’ and suspects’ experiences as well as police officers’ view of investigative interviewing in consideration of Antonovsky’s sense of coherence are presented. Interviewees’ and interviewers’ experiences and interview outcomes with respect to psychological well-being will be discussed.