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Editors
Nadine Deslauriers-Varin Craig Bennell
School of Social Work and Criminology Department of Psychology
Université Laval Carleton University
Quebec, QC, Canada Ottawa, ON, Canada

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Acknowledgments

In addition to acknowledging our contributors for preparing excellent chapters and

meeting our deadlines despite the personal and professional challenges presented by
the COVID-19 pandemic, there are numerous other people that we must thank.
First, we would like to express our appreciation to the team at Springer for provid-
ing us with assistance throughout the editing process. Special thanks to Judith
Newlin, Amelie von Zumbusch, Pradheepa Vijay, Gomathi Mohanarangan, and the
editing and production team. Thank you, Judith, for your always helpful input
throughout this journey. Second, we would like to recognize the hard work of
Miranda Elliot who painstakingly formatted all the chapters, which significantly
improved the overall appearance and flow of the book. Finally, we would like to
thank our families. Completing this book was one more challenge in what has
proved to be a very “interesting” year for both of our families, one full of numerous
COVID-19 lockdowns and a lot of home schooling, and we truly appreciate the
patience, support, and love they showed us throughout the process.

v
Contents

1 Introduction����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������    1
Nadine Deslauriers-Varin and Craig Bennell

Part I Suspect Prioritization and Identification Techniques

2 Sexual Crime Investigation and Offender’s
Decision-Making: Rationality, Achievement, and Expertise����������������    7
Eric Beauregard and Julien Chopin
3 Psychological Profiling and Sex Offenders:
A Review of the Research and Recommendations
for Police Investigations��������������������������������������������������������������������������   17
Bryanna Fox, Jacquelyn Burckley, and Alexandria Corona
4 The Modus via of Sex Offenders and the Use
of Geographical Offender Profiling in Sex Crime Cases����������������������   33
Jasper J. van der Kemp
5 The Use of Crime Linkage in Sexual Offense Cases����������������������������   49
Jessica Woodhams and Kari Davies

Part II Investigative Interviewing

6 Interviewing Adult Complainants in Sexual Assault Cases ����������������   67
Kate Chenier, Rebecca Milne, Kevin Smith, and Brent Snook
7 Investigative Interviewing of Children in Sex Abuse Cases ����������������   85
Kathleen Coulborn Faller
8 Suspect Interviews and Confessions in Sex Crime Cases��������������������   99
Nadine Deslauriers-Varin and Andréanne Bergeron
9 On the Synergy Between Pretext Caller and Police Interrogator ������ 115
Deborah Davis, Richard A. Leo, Tyler N. Livingston,
and Peter O. Rerick

vii
viii Contents

Part III Operational Challenges and Issues

10 Inconsistency, Omissions, and Confidence as Indicators
of the Accuracy of Sexual Assault Victim’s Recollections�������������������� 133
Ronald P. Fisher, Martine B. Powell, and Haley R. Dawson
11 Lie Detection in Sex Crime Investigations �������������������������������������������� 147
Aldert Vrij
12 True and False Allegations of Rape�������������������������������������������������������� 163
André De Zutter
13 Expert Biases in Criminal Investigations of Sexual Offenses�������������� 179
Ching-Yu Huang
14 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Review of Research
on Investigative Decision-Making by Police Officers
in Sex Offense Cases�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 193
Jason Roach and Ashley Cartwright

Part IV Investigation of Specific Types of Sex Crimes

15 Challenges and Opportunities in Investigations
of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children: Old Networks,
Dark Web, and Proactive Response������������������������������������������������������� 217
Francis Fortin, Sarah Paquette, and Stephanie Gagné
16 Sexual Homicide and Its Investigation: New Perspectives
to Improve Police Practices �������������������������������������������������������������������� 235
Julien Chopin and Eric Beauregard

Part V Concluding Thoughts and Remarks

17 Sexual Offense Investigations: Rethinking the Gateway
to the Criminal Justice System �������������������������������������������������������������� 255
D. Kim Rossmo

Conclusion�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 261

Index������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 263
About the Editors

Craig Bennell earned his Ph.D. in Psychology in 2002 from the University of
Liverpool (UK). He is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychology at
Carleton University with a cross-appointment to the School of Linguistics and
Language Studies. He is the Director of Carleton’s Police Research Lab and the
Forensic Psychology Research Centre. He is past-President of the Society of Police
and Criminal Psychology and previous Editor of the Journal of Police and Criminal
Psychology. He is a founding member of the Crime Linkage International Network,
sits on the Research Advisory Committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of
Police, and serves on the editorial boards of several leading forensic/police psychol-
ogy journals. His research focuses on evidence-based policing, with a particular
emphasis on improving de-escalation and use of force training, and on validating
psychologically based investigative techniques such as crime linkage analysis.

Nadine Deslauriers-Varin is an Associate Professor of criminology and the

Associate Chair for Criminology Undergraduate Programs at the School of Social
work and Criminology at Université Laval, QC, Canada. She earned her Ph.D. in
Criminology in 2014 from Simon Fraser University (BC, Canada). She is a researcher
at the International Center of Comparative Criminology (ICCC/CICC), for which
she also acts as the head of the ICCC-Université Laval division, a Regional Champion
for the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG), a collabora-
tor for the Canadian Society of Evidence-Based Policing (CAN-­SEBP), and an asso-
ciate member of the Crime Linkage International NetworK (C-LINK). Most of her
research projects are carried out in collaboration with local, provincial, or federal
police forces and aim at developing sound investigative practices (e.g., suspect iden-
tification and prioritization for sexual, violent and serial crimes, and police interroga-
tion practices) and better understanding of the crime-­commission process. Her work
has been published in top tier peer-reviewed journals in her field and has been the
subject of many scientific papers, book chapters, and presentations.

ix
About the Authors

Eric Beauregard is a Professor in the School of Criminology at Simon Fraser

University. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles in the field of sexual
violence, especially on the crime-commission process, classifications, decision-­
making, and the criminal investigation.

Andréanne Bergeron is a Ph.D. candidate in criminology at the University of

Montreal. Her research interests include police investigation, cybercrime, sexual
offenders, and the intersection between these three. She has also actively partici-
pated in organizing several conferences on police investigation such as the
Conference on Police Investigation Research, the Open Source Investigation
Conference, and the Society for Police and Criminal Psychology conference.

Jacquelyn D. Burckley is a master’s degree candidate in the Department of

Criminology at the University of South Florida. She is the Managing Editor of the
Journal of Crime and Justice, and her research interests include control theories of
crime, sexual violence, and miscarriages of justice. She is currently engaged in
research on morality in a rational choice context, the relationship between employ-
ment and willingness to offend for an inmate population, and the disparity of bail
amounts set for a Florida Department of Corrections population.

Ashley Cartwright is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Policing at the

University of Huddersfield, UK. Ashley continues to conduct and publish research
in different areas of crime and policing including maintaining police well-being,
crime prevention, and police and offender decision-making.

Kate Chenier has worked for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the detach-
ment level since 2006. She is a Ph.D. student at the University of Portsmouth, study-
ing historical child sexual abuse cases in a northern Canadian territory. Her Masters
work on perceptions and practices of officers conducting victim and witness inter-
views in northern Canada is published in the Journal of Police and Criminal
Psychology.

xi
xii About the Authors

Julien Chopin is a senior postdoctoral researcher in the School of Criminology at

Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on the victimization process of chil-
dren and the elderly, violent juvenile offenders, sexual homicide and, more broadly,
extra-familial sexual delinquency.

Alexandria Corona is a research analyst with IDEA Analytics which supports law
enforcement agencies working on justice reform, crime reduction, and data-driven
policing strategies. She holds a bachelor’s in criminology and psychology and a
master’s in psychology from the University of South Florida. Her combination of
psychology and criminal justice research backgrounds provide unique perspectives
to guide solutions for organizations on crime patterns, criminal behavior, community-­
police engagement, and victimization. Her research can be found in outlets includ-
ing Social Development and Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Foundation
magazine.

Kathleen Coulborn Faller is Marion Elizabeth Blue Professor Emerita at the

University of Michigan. She is also Co-Director of the Family Assessment Clinic in
Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has conducted over 300 juried conference presentations
at international, national, and state conferences and provided over 250 workshops.
She is the author, editor, or co-editor of 10 books related to child sexual abuse.

Kari Davies currently works as a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham

and at UCL’s Institute for Global City Policing, and as a Lecturer (Teaching) at
UCL’s Institute of Education. Her recent work has looked at how analysts conduct
behavioral crime linkage in practice, and how the process of linkage differs between
countries. Much of her work has been conducted through secondments into practi-
tioners’ workplaces, and she has collaborated with both the Home Office and sev-
eral police forces in the UK, as well as law enforcement in Belgium, Switzerland,
and Singapore.

Deborah Davis is Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada Reno. She

publishes and testifies in court on issues of memory, interrogation and confession,
and sexual consent communications.

Haley Dawson is a Legal Psychology graduate student working under Ronald

Fisher at Florida International University. She received her B.A. in Psychology and
B.S. in Biology from the University of Michigan-Flint. Her primary research inter-
ests include memory, investigative interviewing, and applying legal psychology
principles to other disciplines. Haley is currently developing her master’s thesis,
which explores how the expectation of disbelief can influence the strategies and
deceptive cues displayed by interviewees.
About the Authors xiii

Nadine Deslauriers-Varin is an Associate Professor of Criminology and the

Associate Chair for Criminology Undergraduate Programs in the School of
Social Work and Criminology at Université Laval, QC, Canada. Her research
focuses on criminal investigations and investigative practices, particularly on
suspect investigative interviewing and the crime-commission process related to
serial and sexual crimes.

André De Zutter is a legal psychologist who works as an assistant professor at the

Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, The Netherlands. He conducts research in the
field of Psychology and Law with a focus on sexual assault. He works as an expert
witness for the courts and is a supervisor in the Dutch Reasonable Doubt Project.

Ronald Fisher is currently a Professor of Psychology at Florida International

University. Ron co-developed the Cognitive Interview technique (with Ed
Geiselman) to enhance witness recall. He has conducted many training workshops
on the Cognitive Interview with investigative agencies such as the FBI and the
National Transportation Safety Board. Ron has also worked with several federal
investigative and law enforcement agencies both in the USA and abroad, including
NASA, the US Army and Navy, British and Australian Police, and the Israeli Air
Force. Ron served on the Planning and Technical Working Groups of the US
Department of Justice to develop national guidelines on collecting eyewitness evi-
dence. His current research also examines alternative methods to detect deception
and interpreting inconsistent witness testimony.

Francis Fortin is a professor at the School of Criminology of the University of

Montreal and a researcher at the International Centre for Comparative Criminology
(ICCC/CICC). He has extensive experience as an expert with the Sûreté du Québec,
including as a criminal intelligence analyst and team leader in cybersurveillance. In
his capacity as a criminal intelligence analyst, he has contributed to hundreds of
investigations involving sexual exploitation of children, hacking, and other cyber-
crimes. His research focuses on cybercrime, intelligence, data mining, and forensic
analysis.

Bryanna Fox is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology at the

University of South Florida, and Faculty Affiliate in the Florida Mental Health
Institute. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is a former
FBI Special Agent. She is Co-Director of the Center for Justice Research & Policy
at USF, and Co-Editor of Justice Quarterly. Her research focuses on evidence-based
policing, crime prevention, and the developmental and psychological risk factors
for offending. She has published 4 books and over 40 articles in outlets to include:
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Justice Quarterly, Law & Society
Review, Social Forces, Psychological Bulletin, and the American Journal of
Preventive Medicine.
xiv About the Authors

Stéphanie Gagné is a master's student at the School of Criminology of the

University of Montreal. With a bachelor's intervention-oriented degree in criminol-
ogy from University Laval, she is now interested in security issues. Her research
goals focus on cybercrime and cyberthreats against individuals.

Ching-Yu Huang holds a Ph.D. in Social and Developmental Psychology from the
University of Cambridge. She is currently a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in
Forensic and Developmental Psychology at Keele University. Her research includes
investigative interviews in vulnerable populations, sexual abuse, as well as cogni-
tive factors influencing investigative decision-making.

Richard A. Leo is the Hamill Family Professor of Law and Psychology at the
University San Francisco, and one of the leading experts in the world on police
interrogation practices, the impact of Miranda, psychological coercion, false con-
fessions, and the wrongful conviction of the innocent. Dr. Leo has authored more
than 100 articles in leading scientific and legal journals as well as several books,
including the multiple award-winning Police Interrogation and American Justice
(Harvard University Press, 2008). Dr. Leo has won numerous individual and career
achievement awards for research excellence and distinction.

Tyler N. Livingston is a social psychologist specializing in research and teaching

in psychology and the law. His work related to suspect interrogation and juror deci-
sion-making is intended to optimize legal procedure and advance social psychologi-
cal theory.

Becky Milne main focus of work over the past 20 years has concerned the exami-
nation of police interviewing and investigation. Jointly with practitioners, she has
helped to create procedures that improve the quality of interviews of witnesses,
victims, intelligence sources, and suspects of crime across many countries. She was
given the Tom Williamson award for her outstanding achievements in the field of
investigative interviewing by the UK National Police Chiefs Council in April 2009.
In 2020, she was the sole awardee of the British Psychology Society Award for
Excellence in Forensic Psychology Research.

Sarah Paquette works as a researcher and specialist in sexual offending at Sexual

Offenders Coordination Division of the provincial police of Quebec, Canada. She is
also an affiliate professor at the School of Social Work and Criminology at Université
Laval. Her research focuses on the factors associated with on- and offline sexual and
violent offending. She currently leads the PRESEL research project that aims to
help develop best police practices in order to prevent child exploitation and to elab-
orate efficient intervention strategies and systematic case prioritization tools.
About the Authors xv

Martine Powell is Professor of Psychology and full-time scholar in the Griffith

Criminology Institute (Griffith University, Brisbane Australia). Her research focuses
on expanding knowledge on the “how to” of obtaining accurate and detailed infor-
mation from people about events to assist decision-making. Martine is also Founding
Director of the Centre for Investigative Interviewing which supports one of the larg-
est groups of trainers and researchers in investigative interviewing across the globe.

Peter O. Rerick is a graduate student at the University of Nevada, Reno. His

research interests include psychology and law-related topics, especially those relat-
ing to sexual consent.

Jason Roach is Professor of Psychology and Policing and Director of the Applied
Criminology and Policing Centre at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Jason has
researched and published extensively in areas including criminal investigation,
offender and police decision-making, homicide and violent crime, terrorism, crime
prevention, and Self-Selection Policing. Jason is also editor for The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles (Sage)

Kim Rossmo is the University Endowed Chair in Criminology and the Director of
the Center for Geospatial Intelligence and Investigation in the School of Criminal
Justice and Criminology at Texas State University. He is a member of the IACP
Advisory Committee for Police Investigative Operations and was formerly the
Detective Inspector in charge of the Vancouver Police Department’s Geographic
Profiling Section. He has researched and published in the areas of criminal investi-
gations and the geography of crime.

Kevin Smith is the National Vulnerable Witness Adviser for the National Crime
Agency in the UK. His work involves the development of operational interview
strategies and plans for witnesses with challenging communication needs. He holds
a Ph.D. and is a Chartered Psychologist.

Brent Snook is a Professor of Psychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

His research examines the reliability and validity of policing practices (e.g., inter-
viewing, deception detection). He is currently exploring ways to enhance adult and
youth understanding of interrogation rights and is developing and testing investiga-
tive interviewing techniques (e.g., note-taking, sketching).

Jasper van der Kemp is a legal psychologist and investigative criminologist at the
VU School of Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His Ph.D. is on
fine-tuning geographical offender profiling. His research focuses on investigative
decision-making and decision support tools.
xvi About the Authors

Aldert Vrij is Professor of Applied Social Psychology, University of Portsmouth

(UK). His main research interest is deception, resulting in almost 600 publications.
He works closely with practitioners (police, security services, and insurers) in terms
of conducting research and disseminating its findings. In 2016, he received the
International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG) Lifetime
Achievement Award in recognition of his significant contribution to investigative
interviewing.

Jessica Woodhams is a Health and Care Professions Council-registered forensic

psychologist and Professor of Forensic Psychology at the University of Birmingham,
UK. She is an international expert in crime linkage and founder of the Crime
Linkage International NetworK (C-LINK). She co-edited Crime Linkage: Theory,
Research, and Practice, a handbook of contributions from expert academics and
practitioners, and she has authored many other papers and chapters on the use of
crime linkage with interpersonal and volume crimes.
Chapter 1
Introduction

Nadine Deslauriers-Varin and Craig Bennell

Sexual offenses are among the most heinous of crimes that can be committed. It is
thus startling to realize how many sexual crimes go unreported every year, world-
wide. In the United States (US), for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) and the US Justice Department estimate that only a third of all rapes will be
reported to the police (FBI, 2015; Truman, & Langton, 2015). Although based on
different legal and judicial definitions, Canadian statistics from the General Social
Survey on Victimization are much lower, indicating that only 5% of sexual assaults
are brought to the attention of the police (Perreault, 2015). In their study based on
over 90 empirical studies from Australia, Canada, England and Wales, Scotland,
and the US on the legal response to rape and sexual assault from 1970 to 2005, Daly
and Bouhours (2009) found an average victim report rate of 14%.
All these numbers become even more critical when we realize that most sexual
assaults that are reported to the police will not be cleared by arrest (Hazelwood &
Burgess, 2017). In fact, of the sexual assaults reported to police, only a small per-
centage (as low as 5% in some cases) will result in the conviction of the offender
(FBI, 2015; Perreault, 2015; Spohn et al., 2015). Despite the increased focus on
criminal investigations of sexual offenses in more recent years, these numbers have
been relatively stable over the past four decades or so (Hazelwood & Burgess, 2017).
Despite this, research on the investigation of sexual offenses has been relatively
slow to emerge, which may partially explain the stability of the numbers reported in
the previous paragraph for over four decades. While there has been a gradual growth
in the field of research on sexual victimization, such growth has not been matched
in terms of the police response to such victimization. The gaps between the current
knowledge on sexual victimization and the police response to it can translate into a

N. Deslauriers-Varin (*)
Université Laval, Québec, QC, Canada
e-mail: [email protected]
C. Bennell
Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 1

N. Deslauriers-Varin, C. Bennell (eds.), Criminal Investigations of Sexual
Offenses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79968-7_1
2 N. Deslauriers-Varin and C. Bennell

feeling of dissatisfaction towards the police, miscommunication and misunder-

standing about police work in this area, as well as misguided responses and prac-
tices by the police.
Given these issues, it is crucial to conduct research that will allow the criminal
justice system to improve its response to sexual offenses. Research is required on
many topics, including studies that can improve the effectiveness of investigative
interviews, the collection of police evidence, the accurate identification and priori-
tization of suspects and, ultimately, the prosecution of sexual assault and rape cases.
To make progress with regards to investigative practices, it also appears crucial that
scholars look more closely at challenges related to current practices. But this body
of knowledge, while crucial, is useless if not shared with and supported by police
agencies.
Unfortunately, the bridge between scientific knowledge of investigative practices
and the application of those practices is rarely crossed by researchers, and the con-
tribution of such scientific knowledge to the modernization of police practices
remains very modest. Careful analysis of the scientific literature shows that crimi-
nological and psychological research, among other types of research, often claims
to have practical implications for police work, but studies having a genuine, direct,
and valuable impact on police practices are in fact relatively infrequent. Conducting
applied research that advances policing practices beyond common sense, traditions,
experience, and flair, towards truly evidence-based practices, still remains a chal-
lenge. The current divide between academic researchers and police organizations
probably explains, at least in part, this finding.
This divide is sometimes inherently supported by personal biases and ideological
considerations, but also prejudices and stereotypes. The police environment, how-
ever, has undergone considerable transformation over the past several decades, pav-
ing the way for the development of collaborations with academia. Indeed, in recent
years, we have been noticing a willingness of police forces to be more proactive
(rather than traditionally reactive) and efficient in their response to crimes being
committed and to lean towards evidence-based practices. Directly related to this, we
are witnessing an increase in empirical studies aimed at providing advice and sup-
port to police forces with the hope that this will improve the efficiency and effec-
tiveness of their practices by using an evidence-based policing approach.
While research related to investigations of sexual offenses is beginning to
emerge, there is currently limited work showcasing the collective efforts of research-
ers studying this topic. Indeed, most of the books published so far on police investi-
gations, and police investigations of sex crime cases more specifically, tend to focus
on the forensic aspects of the criminal investigation, as well as on the analysis and
contribution of physical evidence. In the case of limited physical evidence, other
methods must be used by police forces based on the behavioral and social sciences,
but books covering empirical knowledge about investigative techniques from these
perspectives, and their related challenges, are few.
When we started to discuss this book project, Craig and I were envisioning an
edited book that would start to fill this void by providing a forum where interna-
tional scholars from various academic backgrounds could present the current state
1 Introduction 3

of empirical knowledge related to investigative techniques used in sex crime inves-

tigations, and the operational challenges that surface in such cases. We wanted to
publish a book that would be of interest to police agencies, police practitioners, and
policymakers whose work involves the understanding of criminal investigations and
the police response to sex offending. We also wanted the book to be used by
­academic researchers and students (from various backgrounds) who study aspects
of sex crimes. Thanks to the hard work of our contributors, we think we have
­accomplished this.
This book includes 16 chapters, which are divided into five sections. The first
section includes four chapters related to suspect prioritization and identification
techniques. Effective identification and prioritization of suspects is pivotal to ensure
investigative efficiency (e.g., narrowing the sometimes-overwhelming number of
potential suspects) while reducing the direct and collateral costs associated with an
investigation (e.g., length of the investigation, number of police officers working on
the case). When the identity of the offender in unknown, or the police lack a confes-
sion, an eyewitness, or forensic evidence, other methods must be used to assist
police investigators in identifying potential suspects and prioritizing them. In Chap.
2, Beauregard and Chopin discuss important notions related to offender rationality,
criminal expertise, and decision-making during the crime-commission process.
This first chapter lays the foundation for the three following chapters, which review
techniques that can assist investigators in identifying and prioritizing suspects: psy-
chological profiling (Chap. 3, Fox & colleagues), geographic profiling (Chap. 4,
Van der Kemp), and crime linkage analysis (Chap. 5, Woodhams & Davies).
Establishing if a crime occurred and, ultimately, proving guilt can be accom-
plished in one of three ways: by witness/victim statements, by physical evidence, or
by confession (Rossmo, 2009). The successful interviewing of suspects, victims,
and witnesses is therefore of great importance for the investigations and prosecution
of sex offenses. The second section of the book includes four chapters that review
current empirical efforts in the field of investigative interviewing: interviewing adult
complainants (Chap. 6, Chenier & colleagues), child victims (Chap. 7, Coulborn
Faller) and suspects (Chap. 8, Deslauriers-Varin & Bergeron) in sex abuse and
assault cases, and the use of pretext callers in suspect interviews (Chap. 9, Davis &
colleagues).
Despite the progress that has been made with respect to research related to the
above topics, many challenges remain for investigators in charge of investigating
sexual offenses. In the third section of the book, several of these challenges are
discussed: witness memory and the importance and influence of the complainant’s
testimony on case prosecution (Chap. 10, Fisher & colleagues), verbal lie detection
(Chap. 11, Vrij), allegations of rape and the possibility to distinguish between true
and false allegations (Chap. 12, De Zutter), expert biases (Chap. 13, Huang), and
police officers’ decision-making (Chap. 14, Roach & Cartwright).
In the last decade or so, we have seen a growth of research focusing on emerging
forms of sexual offenses and extreme cases of sexual violence. In the fourth section
of the book, research related to the investigation of specific types of sex crimes are