Interviewing techniques and follow-up questions in child sexual abuse interviews
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The quality of a representative sample of 43 forensic interviews with alleged victims (aged 3 – 8 years) of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Finland was investigated. Interviews were coded for type of interviewer utterance, type of child response, details in the child response and number of words in each utterance. Option-posing, specific suggestive and unspecific suggestive question types comprised almost 50% of all interviewer utterances. The interviewers continued to rely on leading and suggestive questions even after the child had provided significant information, i.e., interviewers failed to follow-up information provided by the child in an adequate way. Longer questions (in number of words) often rendered no reply from the child, whereas shorter questions rendered descriptive answers. Interviewers seemed to fail in discussing the topic of sexual abuse in an appropriate way, frequently employing long and vague unspecific suggestive utterances.Keywords:
Interview
Utterance
Child sexual abuse
This article examines the number and types of questions employed in clinical and computer-assisted interviews with children referred for sexual abuse evaluation. This research was part of a larger study to assess the efficacy of a computer-assisted protocol in the evaluation of child sexual abuse allegations. Interviews of 47 girls and 29 boys, ages 5 to 10 years, referred to a multidisciplinary clinic for sexual abuse assessment, were analyzed. A coding system was developed from interview transcripts. Nine types of questions were defined. Results indicate that during the initial interview children were asked an average of 195 questions (SD = 92) and that more than 85% of interviewer queries were open-ended. The majority of children who disclosed did so in response to focused questions. Findings suggest that many children are able to describe sexual abuse with careful questioning that includes nonleading but focused inquiry. Implications for practice and interviewing guidelines are discussed.
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Child sexual abuse
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This article describes the evolution of forensic interviewing as a method to determine whether or not a child has been sexually abused, focusing primarily on the United States. It notes that forensic interviewing practices are challenged to successfully identify children who have been sexually abused and successfully exclude children who have not been sexually abused. It describes models for child sexual abuse investigation, early writings and practices related to child interviews, and the development of forensic interview structures from scripted, to semi-structured, to flexible. The article discusses the controversies related appropriate questions and the use of media (e.g., anatomical dolls and drawings). It summarizes the characteristics of four important interview structures and describes their impact of the field of forensic interviewing. The article describes forensic interview training and the challenge of implementing training in forensic practice. The article concludes with a summary of progress and remaining controversies and with future challenges for the field of forensic interviewing.
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Child sexual abuse
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Interview
Allegation
Child sexual abuse
Child Protection
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The quality of a representative sample of 43 forensic interviews with alleged victims (aged 3 – 8 years) of child sexual abuse (CSA) in Finland was investigated. Interviews were coded for type of interviewer utterance, type of child response, details in the child response and number of words in each utterance. Option-posing, specific suggestive and unspecific suggestive question types comprised almost 50% of all interviewer utterances. The interviewers continued to rely on leading and suggestive questions even after the child had provided significant information, i.e., interviewers failed to follow-up information provided by the child in an adequate way. Longer questions (in number of words) often rendered no reply from the child, whereas shorter questions rendered descriptive answers. Interviewers seemed to fail in discussing the topic of sexual abuse in an appropriate way, frequently employing long and vague unspecific suggestive utterances.
Interview
Utterance
Child sexual abuse
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Interviews of 12 children describing sexual abuse incidents that were deemed unlikely to have happened were matched with 12 interviews involving descriptions of events that appeared likely to have happened. Each interviewer utterance and each child response was categorized into several types. For each of the child's responses, coders also tabulated the number of words, informative details, and Criterion-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) criteria present. The distribution of the different interviewer's utterance types and child's response types was similar in the 2 groups, as was the number of words and details provided in the average response by the child. However, differences were evident in the children's responses to the specific types of interviewer utterance. The children provided more words, details, and contents that qualified as CBCA criteria in response to open-ended utterances than to focused utterances in plausible statements, but those effects were not apparent in implausible statements.
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Child sexual abuse
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This article contextualizes new knowledge about forensically interviewing and assessing children when there are concerns about child abuse. The article references the impact of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and the circumstance in the 1980s where investigators and clinicians had little guidance about how to interview children about alleged sexual abuse. It further speaks to the consequences of lack of interview guidelines and how videotaped interviews in the McMartin Pre-school cases served as the catalyst for the backlash against child interviewers and their interview techniques. Painful as the backlash was, it led to research and evidence-based practice in interviewing children about child sexual and other abuse. Principal among the practice innovations were forensic interview structures to be used when there is alleged child sexual and other abuse and the strong preference for one interview by a skilled interviewer, who is nevertheless a stranger to the child. Although these innovations satisfied many professionals in the child maltreatment field and critics of child interviewers, the new practices did not address a number of abiding issues: 1) how to meet the needs of children who are unable to disclose maltreatment in a single interview, 2) how to determine which children are suggestible in a forensic interview, and 3) how decisions are made about the likelihood of abuse, based upon the child’s information during the interview. The articles in this special section address these cutting-edge issues.
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Multiple session forensic interviews (MSFI) are a useful tool in the field of child sexual abuse forensic interviewing given the complexity of disclosures and the variety of child-centered needs observed in practice. This paper focuses on the Children's Advocacy Centers of Texas (CACTX) model for conducting MSFIs, illustrated by a description of the statewide training models offered to member centers and enumeration of the MSFI protocol guidelines implemented by one center. A brief history and review of the single session forensic interview (SSFI) is provided followed by considerations for MSFIs in order to establish the development of current and new practices. Clarification of terms are outlined with examples of cases to distinguish between multiple sessions and subsequent sessions. The MSFI guidelines presented demonstrate how an MSFI can fit with the SSFI model.
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Child sexual abuse
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Sex offense
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Because a diagnosis of sexual abuse is usually made from the interview with the victim, this interview is the most crucial part of the assessment. However, it is sometimes very difficult. Many children will not want to to talk about the sexual abuse, and the interview can be traumatic for the child, particularly if the interviewer has to press the child in order to gather the information. The goal of the evaluator is to get the child to disclose as much as possible about the sexual abuse while causing the minimum of trauma to the child.
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