Evaluating VIK: Detecting Vulnerabilities in Investigative Interview

In line with Theme 3 of Kennisagenda Directoraat-Generaal Politie en Veiligheidsregio’s 2023 – 2025, a collaboration between the Netherlands Police Academy and the University of Twente evaluated the perceived effectiveness of ‘Vragenlijst Indicatie Kwetsbaarheid’ (VIK). Police detectives interviewing a suspect are mandated to detect any potential vulnerability in suspects of crime, leading to the development of VIK, which addresses topics such as work and living conditions, education, finances, daily activities, physical and mental health. Determination of vulnerabilities in suspects is important, since vulnerabilities can impact the credibility of the account and if not accounted for lead to ineffective information gathering. Tools to identify vulnerability are often overly specific for use in police practice or otherwise fail to capture the needs of police interviewers. As a result, VIK was designed by police for police. However, practitioners experiences using VIK to identify suspects’ vulnerabilities remain unclear. Therefore, in this research we tested the perceived effectiveness, familiarity and usability of VIK through a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. Inductive qualitative analysis revealed that the questions about socio-economic conditions were perceived as especially useful, because partitioners found these to be objective markers. In contrast, the potential value of questions about interviewees hobbies were often not seen by practitioners, who found it hard to operationalize decisions based on this topic. Some respondents indicated that they were unfamiliar with the tool or unsure how to use it effectively for decision-making, resulting in VIK being dependent on training and education. Concluding, practitioners who used VIK generally found it to be a helpful tool in assessing suspect vulnerability. However, its effectiveness could be enhanced if more interviewers knew how to use each of the elements of VIK in practice. Therefore, our recommendations are to advertise the availability of the VIK alongside guidance materials to maximize its efficacy and potential benefits.