Psychological well-being in the police interview: 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 victimisation and obstruct legal procedures, and as a consequence of such obstructions be anti-therapeutic. This paper discusses the definition and measurement of psychological well-being in relation to the police interview with crime victims and suspects. Two studies regarding crime victims’ and suspects’ experiences of police interviews in consideration of Antonovsky’s sense of coherence (SOC) are presented. Results show that crime victims’ perceptions of anxiety in the police interview are associated lower SOC and suspects’ perceptions of being respected in the police interview relate to higher SOC. Interviewees’ experiences and interview outcomes with respect to psychological well-being are discussed.