Sexual Assault Victim-Survivors’ Perceptions of Police Interview Techniques: Results from a Survey Study

Abstract Victim-survivors of sexual violence frequently describe police interviews as traumatising, yet their input has seldom been sought in the development of investigative interview techniques. Our study surveyed 285 adult victim-survivors of sexual violence in Australia to examine their perceptions of key police interview techniques. Conducting the interview in a private and comfortable environment was rated as the most important technique to victim-survivor participants, followed by the interviewer expressing belief in a victim-survivor’s account. Participants identified that they would feel most comfortable with the interviewer telling them to correct any mistakes the interviewer makes during the interview, followed by the interviewer checking in regularly about how victim-survivors are feeling throughout the interview process. Participants selected feeling least comfortable if the interviewer used silence and long pauses between questions or attempted to find common ground by sharing details about themselves. The context reinstatement technique was rated moderate in comfort by victim-survivor participants. Few significant group differences were detected among the survey sample. The survey findings have important implications for investigative interview practice and may help investigators to better understand how to support victim-survivors in sexual offence interviews.