AMERICAN JOURNAL OF FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY

AN INTERVIEW PROTOCOL OF EXPERIENCED HUMAN INTELLIGENCE COLLECTORS AND COUNTERINTELLIGENCE AGENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH Charles H. Leps and R. Edward Geiselman, Ph.D.

Twenty-three experienced military human intelligence collectors and counterintelligence agents participated in a structured survey interview designed to qualify their perspectives about their professional practice, explore the prospect of integrating with the scientific community, and identify tangible gains from an idealized interface. The results revealed some misunderstandings about the applicability of academic psychological research in support of their intelligence collection mission, but once clarified the participants expressed enthusiasm for future collaboration and continued dialogue. All participants were confident in their abilities, especially those with more years on the job. Mythology was evident in the training pipeline, but valid organically generated principles for conducting effective “adversarial interactions” also were described, especially from the more experienced practitioners. There was little support for the use of force or severe interrogation techniques as methodologies for use in gathering reliable information. Instead, the participants expressed a preference for culturally sensitive, rapport-based techniques, as well as further research in support of those approaches.

IDENTIFICATION OF PARENTAL ENDORSEMENT PATTERNS: AN EXAMPLE OF THE IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL ATTUNEMENT TO THE CLINICAL-FORENSIC RISK MARKERS IN JUVENILE FIRESETTING AND BOMB MAKING. 

 Ronn Johnson, Ph.D., ABPP and Patricia Jones, M.A

Juvenile firesetting and bomb making (JFSB) pose significant problems at a community level. These issues include threats to the health and well being of the involved juveniles, witnesses, families, and innocent bystanders. These behaviors also pose fiscal burdens to the public. These expenses can be calculated in terms of the cost of emergency response, property damage, and related legal expenses. Currently, public health risks and fiscal costs of JFSB must be estimated on a case-by-case basis. This is due to the complexity of the behaviors (including materials gathering, planning and execution), a broad range of differences in underlying motivations for JFSB, and the familial, geographic, and social circumstances in which the JFSB occurs. Clinically informed, evidence-based, forensic inferences and decisions made about each case involve the collection and evaluation of detailed information from a multitude of sources. Parents with current or historical guardianship of the juvenile firesetters and bomb makers are essential sources in these evaluations. Parents often have detailed information necessary for the clinician to understand the complex issues of psychological

 distress frequently observed in this population. However, in a forensic setting where their child has been accused of, or found guilty of, a serious crime, parents frequently underreport or over-report their child’s mental health symptoms and behavioral patterns. This article describes the use of the Forensic Assessment Therapeutic Jurisprudence Assistance Model - Forensic Parent Interview (FATJAM-FPI) to assist in the identification and clinical-forensic interpretation of patterns in parents’ endorsements and denials of their child’s psychological and behavioral histories. Implications for research, training and forensic psychological practice are discussed.

DOES SPEED INDICATE LINEUP IDENTIFICATION ACCURACY? EXAMINING CHILDREN’S AND ADULTS’ REACTION TIME

Kaila Bruer M.A. and Joanna D. Pozzulo, Ph.D.

The purpose of this study was to assess young children’s lineup identification performance compared to adults and to determine whether developmental variability exists in reaction time when making correct and incorrect identification decisions across target-present and targetabsent lineups. Adults (Mage= 20.00) and young children (Mage= 4.69) were exposed to an unfamiliar target and the time taken for them to make a lineup decision was automatically recorded by touching the picture on a computer screen. Children were found to have fewer hits (i.e., correct identifications and rejections) and more false alarms than adults in both lineup types. In addition, results support the hypothesis that a faster decision was related to improved accuracy for adults, while a slower decision may be suggestive of reduced accuracy for children. The developmental variability may suggest that developmental cognitive factors may influence lineup behavior. Implications of the findings and recommendation for future research are discussed.