The purpose of Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) is to execute legal procedures such that they promote the social and psychological well-being of the individual involved in a juridical action. TJ may be a facilitating factor in the police interview. Previous studies  have shown a relation between a humanitarian interviewing approach and suspects inclination to confess as well as crime victims narrate all what they can remember from a crime event (see e.g., Gudjonsson, 2006; Holmberg 2004; Holmberg & Christianson, 2002; Kebbell et al., 2006; Kebbell et al., 2008). The humanitarian experiences of the people involved in judicial actions seem to promote a therapeutic jurisprudential psychological well-being that might act as a rehabilitating factor.

The aim of the present experimental study was to investigate the causal relationship between the humanitarian respectively the dominant interviewing approach and interview outcomes. With interview outcomes mean the memory performance and psychological well-being. The experiment comprised three phases and 127 subjects between 17 and 70 years old participated in these three phases. The first phase was an exposure where the subjects in pairs acted against each other in a computer simulation with a scenario symbolizing a crime event. During the simulation, half of the subjects got the opportunity to steel from the opposite party. A week after the exposure phase, the subjects were interviewed in a humanitarian or a dominant style symbolizing a police interview after a crime event. Sex month later, the subjects were interviewed again in the same manner, symbolizing the interview in the court proceeding. Before the exposure phase, the subject completed Spielberger’s stait-trait anxiety inventory (STAI) – trait form and Rammstedt & John’s the 10-Item Big Five Inventory. Before after every phase, the participants completed Antonovsky’s sense of coherence questionnaire and Spielberger’s STAI – the state form. After the interviews the participants also completed a questionnaire that measured whether the interviews were perceived as humanitarian or dominant. Preliminary results, since a part of the interviews has been analyzed, show that acting in the computer simulation affected the subjects’ mood. Results indicate that the humanitarian interviewing approach result in a higher memory performance and a higher psychological well-being compared to the dominant interviewing style. The results from the analyzes of the compete sample will be presented and discussed.

This study describes and tests an empirical-based theoretical model of rapport in an investigative interview context. Essential in this study is whether rapport, operationalized as the humanitarian interview, in two interviews with a six-month retention interval, had any causal effects on the respective memory performance of 146 and 127 interviewees. Independent-samples t‐tests revealed, on both occasions, that a humanitarian rapport interview led to a larger amount of reported information altogether, with more central and peripheral information, than a dominant non-rapport interview did. Regardless of the interview approach, mixed between-within analysis of variance showed a substantially larger amount of reported information in the first interview than the second. The amount of false information reported in both interviews was statistically invariable, regardless of interviewing style.

The amount and the quality of provided information in a police interview can be seen as the lifeblood of a crime investigation where a Therapeutic Jurisprudential approach may act as a facilitating factor.

The aim of the present experimental study was to investigate the causal relationship between the humanitarian respectively the dominant interviewing approach and interview outcome. Interview outcome means the memory performance and psychological well-being. The experiment comprised three phases where 127 subjects between 17 and 70 years old participated. The first phase was an exposure where the subjects acted against each other in pairs in a computer simulation with a scenario symbolizing a crime event. A week after the exposure phase, the subjects were interviewed in a humanitarian or a dominant style symbolizing a police interview after a crime event. Sex month later, the subjects were interviewed again in the same manner, symbolizing the interview in the court proceeding.

Before and after every phase, the participants completed Antonovsky’s sense of coherence questionnaire and Spielberger’s STAI – the state form. The results from the two interview phases will be discussed in terms of interviewing styles, memory performance, that is the amount and quality of provided information, and psychological well-being.

Therapeutic jurisprudence sees the law as a social force; its underlying idea is that legal procedures should promote the psychological well-being (PWB) of individuals involved in juridical actions. In this experimental study, 146 subjects were assigned to one of two groups: one undergoing humanitarian rapport interviews, the other undergoing non-rapport interviews. Each group underwent two interviews separated by a six-month interval. The causal effects of interview style on interviewees’ PWB were measured using sense of coherence and StateTrait Anxiety inventories, both pre and post interview at Interviews I and II. Analysis of covariance of scores from both interviews showed interaction effects between interview style and interviewees’ anxiety and sense of coherence, respectively. At Interview I, a non-rapport approach was related to increased anxiety, that is, decreased PWB when comparing pre- and post-interview testing. At Interview II, a humanitarian rapport approach promoted improved sense of coherence, thus, increased PWB. More empirical research on PWB in relation to therapeutic jurisprudence is needed. The discussion focuses on how PWB should be measured in a therapeutic jurisprudential context of investigative interviews.

Therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) aims to execute legal procedures in ways that promote the psychological well-being (PWB) of the individuals involved. This experimental study investigates the impact of personality on interviewees’ memory performance and PWB from a TJ perspective. PWB was defined by state anxiety (STAI-S) and sense of coherence (SOC). Interviewees’ personalities were assessed using the 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory (Rammstedt, B., & John, O. P. (2007). Measuring personality in one minute or less: a 10-item short version of the Big Five Inventory in English and German. Journal of Research in Personality, 41, 203!212) and State!Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T; Spielberger, C. D., Gorsuch, R., Lushene, P. R. Vagg, P. R., & Jacobs, G. A. (1983). State!Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press]. Participants (N D 146) were assigned to undergo either humanitarian rapport interviews or non-rapport interviews. Each group underwent one exposure (computer simulation) and two interviews separated by a 6-month interval. Regression analysis showed that neuroticism (N), openness to experience (O) and extraversion (E) predicted interviewees’ memory performance; N and O were moderated by interview style. Moreover, E and agreeableness (A) predicted higher SOC and lower STAI-S, that is, increased PWB, whereas N predicted lower SOC and elevated levels of STAI-S, that is, lower PWB. In Interviews I and II, STAI- T and a non-rapport approach were a stronger predictor of lower SOC. The results are discussed from a TJ perspective.