Introduction
This report is currently under review.
A forensicFootnote 1 interview, sometimes called an investigative interview, is a process where an interviewer (e.g., a police officer) gathers information from an alleged victim, witness, or person of interest to a crime (adult or child) to obtain information and evidence about the crime. In Canada, police and criminal justice system practitioners use several different methods of forensic interviewing, and interviews may be conducted by a police officer, or a trained civilian. In some cases, there may be a multidisciplinary team available before or after the interview with representatives from victim services (which may include the services of a support animal), mental health services, or child protection services. Forensic interview techniques are often used with victims who have experienced trauma because of the incident being investigated, or with victims who are vulnerable for other reasons. They are often used when interviewing victims of sexual violence, human trafficking, child abuse and other serious forms of victimization.
Forensic interview techniques aim to balance the need for gathering sufficient information for a successful prosecution, while protecting the psychological safety of the victim and avoiding revictimization. Hunley and O’Donohue (2022) argue there are four primary objectives that should be met under a sexual assault forensic interview protocol. Firstly, the interview should not cause harm, offend or deter the interviewee from further cooperation with law enforcement; secondly the protocol should obtain as much relevant information and detail about the incident as possible to determine if a crime occurred; next, the protocol should strike the right balance between collecting sufficient quality and quantity of information about the details of the incident, while avoiding collecting too much irrelevant information; and finally, the interviewer should be able to recognize any urgent medical, safety, or psychological needs of the victim to ensure that they are promptly/immediately referred to the proper supports/services.
Historically, police services have used free-recall interviewing where a person is encouraged to recount information without interruption, but recognition of the impact of trauma on memory has pushed police away from this one-size-fits-all approach towards more fine-tuned techniques. The purpose of this paper is to examine several commonly used forensic interviewing methods for vulnerable victims. The objective is to better understand the interviewing techniques, the available evidence assessing the different interview types, and best practices for ensuring successful collection of information while protecting victim physical safety and mental wellbeing. The review begins with a general discussion of vulnerable victims and how trauma may impact a victim’s ability to recount events, followed by a discussion of the specific forensic interviewing methods used for adults and children. The review also examines best practices and considerations for working with equity-seeking groups.
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