Use of a structured investigative protocol enhances the quality of investigative interviews with alleged victims of child sexual abuse in Britain

One hundred alleged victims of child sexual abuse (aged 4–13; M = 9.3 years) were interviewed by police investigators about their alleged experiences. Half of the children were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) structured interview Protocol, whereas the other children, matched with respect to their age, relationship with the alleged perpetrator, and seriousness of the alleged offenses, were interviewed by investigators following the Memorandum of Good Practice. Protocol‐guided interviews elicited more information using free‐recall invitations and less information using directive, option‐posing and suggestive questions than did standard Memorandum interviews. There were no age differences in the proportion of total information provided in response to open‐ended invitations in either condition, but there was a significant increase with age in the proportion of central information provided in response to open‐ended invitations. Published in 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of mental context reinstatement on children's accounts of sexual abuse*

Forensic interviewers guided 46.4‐ to 13‐year‐old alleged victims of sexual abuse to recall the context in which the reported incidents had taken place. A comparable group of 50 alleged victims were interviewed using an interview protocol that was identical except that the mental context reinstatement (MCR) techniques were not included. MCR did not increase the total number of event‐related details reported, but it did lead children to reported proportionally more details (55% versus 46%) in response to invitations rather than focused prompts. Such information is more likely to be accurate. MCR had an especially powerful effect on the youngest children (4‐ to 6‐year‐olds) studied. The results suggest that non‐suggestive contextual cues may indeed be useful in forensic interviews. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Do human figure diagrams help alleged victims of sexual abuse provide elaborate and clear accounts of physical contact with alleged perpetrators?

The present study examined whether the use of human figure diagrams (HFDs) within a well‐structured interview was associated with more elaborate and clearer accounts about physical contact that had occurred in the course of an alleged abuse. The sample included investigative interviews of 88 children ranging from 4 to 13 years of age. Children were interviewed using the NICHD investigative interview protocol, and were then asked a series of questions in association with unclothed gender‐neutral outline diagrams of a human body. A new coding scheme was developed to examine the types and clarity of touch‐related information. Use of the HFDs was associated with reports of new touches not mentioned before and elaborations regarding the body parts reportedly touched. The HFDs especially helped clarify reports by the oldest rather than the youngest children. The clarity of children's accounts of touch was also greater when details were sought using recall prompts. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of repeated interviewing on children's forensic statements of sexual abuse

Multiple interviews with children alleging sexual abuse are not uncommon. Researchers expressed concern that repeated investigations may create and preserve inaccurate details. However, studies indicated that repeated open‐ended interviews are not necessarily harmful and may have advantages. Forensic interviews were conducted with 40 children, alleged victims of sexual abuse, according to the NICHD investigative protocol. The children were re‐interviewed after a short break. The information obtained in the second interview was almost 25% new. The first interview yielded a larger number of details, both central and peripheral, but the proportion of central details was larger in the second interview. The proportion of details repeated in both interviews was surprisingly low, and most of the original information was not included. Older children repeated more information than younger ones. The data suggest that a repeated forensic interview may elicit new information and preserve central details. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's eyewitness reports after exposure to misinformation from parents

This study examined how misleading suggestions from parents influenced children's eyewitness reports. Children (3 to 8 years old) participated in science demonstrations, listened to their parents read a story that described experienced and nonexperienced events, and subsequently discussed the science experience in two follow-up interviews. Many children described fictitious events in response to open-ended prompts, and there were no age differences in suggestibility during this phase of the interview. Accuracy declined markedly in response to direct questions, especially for the younger children. Although the older children retracted many of their false reports after receiving source-monitoring instructions, the younger children did not. Path analyses indicated that acquiescence, free recall, and source monitoring all contribute to mediating patterns of suggestibility across age. Results indicate that judgments about the accuracy of children's testimony must consider the possibility of exposure to misinformation prior to formal interviews.     

Forensic interviews with preschool children: An analysis of extended interviews in Norway (2015–2017)

This study examined the quality of forensic interviews conducted by specially trained police officers in the Norwegian Barnahus between 2015 and 2017, using the sequential interview (SI) model, a Norwegian version of the extended interview model that has not previously been studied. Two hundred and seven interviews of alleged abused preschool children (3–7 years old) were selected from around the country. Developmental trends in interview dynamics and the pattern of disclosure were analyzed. Analyses showed that the interviews were long but involved few open-ended and many suggestive questions, especially in interviews with the youngest children who did not disclose. Because similar findings were obtained in previous studies of Norwegian interviews not using this model, the findings suggest that the SI interview model does little to improve the formal quality of forensic interviews with very young children, and show the need to develop new forms of interviewer training which are more intensive than those currently employed.     

Recalling an event one year later: the impact of props,drawing and a prior interview

One hundred and one 5‐year‐old children were interviewed about a routine health assessment carried out at school following delays of both 3 days and 1 year or 1 year only. Children were interviewed with prototypical medical items and a doll (props), with verbal prompts only (verbal), or with drawing (drawing). There was a decrease in both the amount and the accuracy of the information children reported over the 1‐year delay, but no effect of the prior (3‐day) interview. Children interviewed with props recalled more information than those asked to draw or interviewed with verbal prompts only, particularly at the long delay. Correct information was more likely to be repeated across interviews than were errors, and, whereas information repeated across interviews was highly reliable, information introduced for the first time after 1 year was not, particularly when children drew. These findings have important implications in applied contexts such as when children are called upon to provide testimony following very long delays. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Weathering the storm: children's long-term recall of Hurricane Andrew

Children who experienced a highly stressful natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew, were interviewed within a few months of the event, when they were 3-4 years old, and again 6 years later, when they were 9-10 years old. Children were grouped into low, moderate, or high stress groups depending on the severity of the experienced storm. All children were able to recall this event in vivid detail 6 years later. In fact, children reported over twice as many propositions at the second interview as at the first. At the initial interview, children in the high stress group reported less information than children in the moderate stress group, but 6 years later, children in all three stress groups reported similar amounts of information. However children in the high stress group needed more questions and prompts than children in the other stress groups. Yet children in the high stress group also reported more consistent information between the two interviews, especially about the storm, than children in the other stress groups. Implications for children's developing memory of stressful events are discussed.     

Weathering the storm: Children's long‐term recall of Hurricane Andrew

Children who experienced a highly stressful natural disaster, Hurricane Andrew, were interviewed within a few months of the event, when they were 3–4 years old, and again 6 years later, when they were 9–10 years old. Children were grouped into low, moderate, or high stress groups depending on the severity of the experienced storm. All children were able to recall this event in vivid detail 6 years later. In fact, children reported over twice as many propositions at the second interview as at the first. At the initial interview, children in the high stress group reported less information than children in the moderate stress group, but 6 years later, children in all three stress groups reported similar amounts of information. However children in the high stress group needed more questions and prompts than children in the other stress groups. Yet children in the high stress group also reported more consistent information between the two interviews, especially about the storm, than children in the other stress groups. Implications for children's developing memory of stressful events are discussed.     

A comparison of mental and physical context reinstatement in forensic interviews with alleged victims of sexual abuse

Forensic interviews with 142 alleged victims of sexual abuse, ranging from 4.0 to 13.5 years of age, were conducted under three different interviewing conditions: at the scene of the incidents (Physical Context Reinstatement; PCR group), in the investigator's office with mental context reinstating instructions (MCR group), and in the office without contextual cueing (Control group). Children in the PCR, MCR, and Control groups did not differ significantly with respect to the total number of informative details reported. Children in the MCR condition provided more detailed responses to the main invitation and in their first narrative than did children in the PCR condition, however. They also provided proportionally more detailed responses to open‐ended invitations and fewer details in response to directive prompts than did children in the two other conditions. The MCR procedures were thus associated with greater improvements in the quality of information retrieval than were the PCR procedures. In all interviewing conditions, children aged 7 to 13 years provided significantly more details than 4‐ to‐6‐year‐old children did. The youngest children provided fewer details in response to invitations and directive utterances, and proportionally more details in response to option‐posing and suggestive utterances. No significant interactions between age and interviewing condition were apparent. Published in 2002 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Adult credibility assessments of misinformed,deceptive and truthful children

This study compared how adults assess the credibility of children who either: (1) experienced a misleading suggestive interview, (2) were coached to lie or (3) experienced a non‐misleading interview. Preschool children (N = 24) were interviewed about a game they had played. One third of them spontaneously reported the truth, one third lied in response to coaching and one third spontaneously reported misinformation from a prior misleading suggestive interview. One hundred and twenty‐nine college students watched videotaped interviews of these children describing their alleged play activities and assessed their credibility. Children who had experienced misleading suggestive questioning were rated as less credible than those who were telling the truth and those who were lying. Adults could accurately detect truth‐telling children above chance, whereas accuracy was below chance detecting both lying children and children who had been misinformed. Adults were most confident of their ratings of truth‐telling children. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effects of Practice on Children's Ability to Apply Ground Rules in a Narrative Interview

Despite the widespread use of ground rules in forensic interview guidelines, it is unknown whether children retain and apply these rules throughout narrative interviews. We evaluated the capacity of 260 five- to nine-year-olds to utilize three ground rules. At the beginning of the interview all children heard the rules; half also practiced them. Children then responded to open-ended prompts about a repeated laboratory event and were assessed for their application of the rules. Logistic regressions revealed that practice only benefitted the use of the “don't know” rule. Although the children accurately answered “don't understand” and “correct me” practice questions, practice appeared to give no greater benefit than just hearing the rules. Results suggest that the current format of ground rule practice in interview guidelines is appropriate for the “don't know” rule, but the other rules may require more extensive practice with this age group. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of question type on self‐contradictions by children in the course of forensic interviews

Twenty‐four forensic interviews of seven alleged victims of child sexual abuse were examined to elucidate the circumstances in which the children contradicted forensically relevant details they had provided earlier. Suggestive questions by the interviewers elicited a disproportionate number of contradictions, whereas open‐ended invitations never elicited contradictions. Because contradictions necessarily imply that details were stated inaccurately at least once, these close analyses of forensic interviews demonstrate that, as in analogue contexts, open‐ended prompts yield more accurate information than do focused questions, particularly option‐posing and suggestive prompts. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A state of high anxiety: how non‐supportive interviewers can increase the suggestibility of child witnesses

The present study examined the effects of state and trait anxiety on 8–11 years old children's susceptibility to misleading post‐event information. Participants' state and trait anxiety were measured, after which they watched an extract from a children's movie. They were then individually interviewed using either a supportive or a non‐supportive style. During the interviews, the children were asked 14 questions about the movie, seven of which were control and seven contained misleading information. After the interview, their state anxiety was measured again. Results showed that participants interviewed in a non‐supportive style were more likely to provide incorrect answers to misleading questions. Furthermore, participants who scored highly on both trait and post‐interview state anxiety measures more often responded incorrectly to misleading questions. Also, pre‐to post‐interview changes in state anxiety were correlated with more incorrect responses to misleading questions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Transfer of Skills in the Context of Non‐Suggestive Investigative Interviews: Impact of Structured Interview Protocol and Feedback

Two groups of police investigators were trained in the use of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) interview protocol. After the training, one group (n = 8) received written feedback on each interview they conducted, whereas the other group (n = 11) did not. The objective of the study was, first, to evaluate the effect of NICHD protocol implementation on the types of questions and details provided by children and, second, to evaluate the impact of post‐training feedback. Interviewees were alleged sexual abuse victims between the ages of 3 and 14 years. Application of the NICHD protocol allowed interviewers to use more open‐ended questions and to obtain more details. The results show that providing feedback significantly increased the quality of the interviews. It is recommended that the NICHD protocol be used to interview child victims and witnesses and that feedback sessions be held with interviewers. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.