The effect of long‐term training on police officers' use of open and closed questions in field investigative interviews of children (FIIC)

This study intends to assess the effect of long‐term training on police officers' use of open and closed questions in investigative interviews of children. One hundred field investigative interviews of children were divided into two groups based on the interviewers' level of competence (training and experience). The police officers' questions were classified into groups of either open or closed. In all interviews, the mean numbers were 20 open and 217 closed questions, corresponding to an open–closed question ratio of 1:10. The most competent interviewers used 22 open questions and the less competent used 19 open questions, but the difference was not statistically significant. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant effect of question but no main effect of competence. ANOVA revealed a descending number of open questions during the interviews, whilst the distribution of closed questions showed an inverted U distribution with most frequent use of closed questions in the middle part of the interviews. Possible strategies of enhancing the use of open questions are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.