Dave WALSH 

Dave Walsh, Ph.D., is Professor of Criminal Investigation at De Montfort University, UK. He collaborates with many academics and police officers around the world. He has over 90 publications, particularly on the subject of investigative interviewing. He is the lead editor of The International Handbook of Investigative Interviewing and Interrogation (Routledge, 2024). He leads an international group of 270+ scholars and practitioners from over 56 countries on the four-year ImpleMéndez project strengthening research networks and helping implement the Mendez Principles.  

Area of Expertise: Investigative interviewing, detecting deception, criminal investigation   

 http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4950-6830

Contemplating future approaches to the investigation of serious and organised crime in Europe: Contemporary research, policy initiatives, theoretical underpinnings and practical applications

Serious and organised crime (SOC) is commonly agreed to be a major criminal threat that is constantly changing and thus providing the police with demanding challenges as to how effectively tackle this increasingly sophisticated crime in such dynamic contexts. Their ability to meet these challenges is often found evident in both the way that the crime is investigated and how its suspects and victims are interviewed.  Of the studies in this paper, the first was conducted with highly experienced police personnel, examining concepts of prospective sense-making in their endeavours to develop novel ways to combat SOC, finding a need for innovative approaches.

The paper then examines recent policy directives concerning how investigators are recommended to conduct investigative interviews with SOC suspects, particularly in light of a recent UN-led operational manual. The paper then discusses the importance of building rapport in police interviews with victims of SOC, specifically in human trafficking cases, and providing a theoretical evidence base for its inclusion in such interviews. Finally, through the channel of a Portuguese case study, the paper illustrates how such interviewing techniques were important to its successful conclusion in that example. The overall implications of these different facets of the paper are discussed.