The mindful interview method : retrieving cognitive evidence / Gil Zamora.

"The Mindful Eyewitness Interview: Retrieving Cognitive Evidence assists investigators in gathering authentic, reliable information from eyewitnesses to identify the culprit, and improving the gathering of reliable information from private sector interviewers. It's a resource that offers the reader evidence-based techniques to enhance gathering reliable evidence and reveals the assessment component that measures the reliability of cognitive evidence. It is notable that currently there is minimal to no instruction or training offered to those individuals most-often tasked with interviewing an eyewitness about a criminal investigation. This fact is reflected in recent revelations of cases involving misidentifications and wrongful convictions of innocent people. The assumption that officials, trained in the rules of evidence, are asking the questions without proper understanding of the fragility of human memory. The reality is that eyewitness interview training is cursory at best, and most often nonexistent. Despite the lack of training and certification, we allow interviewers to practice in the face of well-established research on the malleability of human memory. Considering this current justice reform on best practices, The Mindful Eyewitness Interview provides a path forward, detailing how the interviewer can conduct information-gathering strategies of questioning anyone in a mindful manner. The book uses cognitive research to inform the methods and principles for a mindful approach-without being wholly or overly prescriptive. This is the best way to elicit reliable accounts and information, and use evidence-based lines of questioning, to perform interviews that elicit the most reliable information for investigative purposes"-- Provided by publisher.