NCJ Number
152920
Journal
Juvenile and Family Court Journal Volume: 45 Issue: 4 Dated: (1994) Pages: 13-29
Date Published
1994
Length
17 pages
Annotation
Interviewing children is a complex task, particularly in child sexual abuse cases, and critical points of current empirical research are noted to help juvenile and family courts improve the quality of pretrial interviews.
Abstract
Interviews with children should be conducted as early as possible due to the risk of memory fade. Evidence indicates that children forget faster than adults, and memory lapse may make children more susceptible to misleading information presented after a delay. The accuracy of a child's account depends on interviewer skill and sensitivity to his or her special vulnerabilities. To counter a child's predictable assumptions, interviewers should take great care to establish ground rules for the interview. Moreover, interviewers need to remind children to report only what was actually experienced rather than what may be recalled from overheard conversations and prior interviews and what may be imagined. Interviewers should also explain the range of permissible responses. Dangers associated with using leading questions and props such as anatomically detailed dolls, with asking repeated questions in a single interview, and with multiple interviews are discussed. Ways of increasing accurate recall are considered, and the use of age-appropriate language and the avoidance of biasing techniques are emphasized. The authors recommended that the pretrial processing of cases involving child witnesses be reformed. 87 references and 3 notes