Investigative and Forensic Interviews: Standards of Practice in Feminicide Contexts

An interview is a technique for gathering information between two or more people whose purpose is to provide information about a particular event or context. Although interviews vary according to the area or the purposes for which they are planned to be carried out, it is possible to assert that their procedural characteristics tend to show uniformity in their sequences; all of them have a preparation phase, an introduction, a narrative, clarifying questions, and a closing phase. This chapter emphasizes using the interview as a technique for gathering information and as an element that can be used later as evidence in a court, which can provide relevant information about the time, manner, and place of a victimizing context. Through this chapter, the standards of practice based on the UN’s instruments and specialized literature that must be followed for the correct execution of the interview of victims, survivors, witnesses, and suspects are presented exhaustively and in detail. Likewise, a final section mentions the importance of considering the dynamism of cognitive functions such as memory and its influence on the interview and some forensic considerations that must be considered for further analysis of testimonies.