Child forensic interview techniques
This report is currently under review.
Interviews involving children who may have experienced maltreatment or violence require special consideration because a child’s age and developmental capabilities can affect memory, recall, and ability to communicate details of an incident.Footnote 2 Trauma can also influence their ability to remember and understand an event. Forensic interviewers must be cautious that the interview process does not re-traumatize the child, but also strike a balance between correctly identifying abuse, while correctly excluding children who have not been abused (Coulborn Faller, 2014). Over the past decades there have been many protocols and guidelines developed by academics, professional organizations, and government departments/agencies for interviewing children. These protocols generally share several guiding principles, including avoidance of leading questions, use of a hypothesis testing approach, and centering the child in the questioning process (Yuille 2009).
National guidelines for Canada’s Child Advocacy Centres/Child and Youth Advocacy Centres (CAC/CYAC)Footnote 3 outline best practices for forensic interviewing of child sexual assault victims (Bertrand, Paetsch, Boyd, and Bala, 2018). These guidelines were established to ensure that appropriate procedures are followed during child forensic interviews. The purpose of a forensic interview in a CAC/CYAC is to obtain a statement from a child/youth in a developmentally and culturally sensitive manner. These interviews must be unbiased and produce facts or evidence that will support fair decision-making by a multidisciplinary team involving criminal justice and child protection actors. While there are some variations in child forensic interviewing models, there are three significant phases that are common to all:
- Rapport building phase
The interviewer attempts to build a trusting relationship with the interviewee and explains what the interview will entail. This could include documentation of the statement or rules that the child must follow during the interview. This phase allows for the interviewer to understand the child’s developmental level and will influence the remainder of the interview process. - Substantive phase
This involves the interviewer asking open-ended questions to gather information about the event from the child. The interviewer attempts to collect as much information about the maltreatment as possible, which often involves exploring multiple hypotheses for the allegation of the incident where appropriate. - Closure phase
The interviewer has decided that there is no further information to collect from the child. At this time, the interviewer considers the needs of the child, and may transition the conversation to a more neutral topic before concluding the interview. In some cases, the interviewer may thank the child for sharing, even if they did not provide adequate information for a disclosure.
Some components of forensic interviewing may vary across models, including the structure of the interview, instructions for the child, discussions regarding the child’s understanding of the truth and lies, appropriate questions to ask during the interview based on the child’s developmental abilities. Some suggested guidelines for these interviews include providing interviewers with specialized training, offering a safe environment conducive to free recall, minimizing interviewer influence, and avoiding duplicating interviews (Bertrand, Paetsch, Boyd, and Bala, 2018). The following sections outline three of the most used protocols for child forensic interviews.
The Child Cognitive Interview
The CI, as discussed previously in adult forensic interview protocols, is also widely used for child victims and has been adjusted to be used for this group. Components of the CI, such as recalling events in reverse chronological order have been altered when this protocol is applied to children. The CI has been tested for quality and accuracy of information obtained from child victims and witnesses, with research demonstrating that the CI is effective in improving children’s recall of events; it appears, however, to be more effective with older children (Cronch et al., 2005; Goodman & Melinder, 2007).
Step-Wise Interview
The Step-Wise interview is a forensic interview protocol used for cases of child sexual abuse allegations (Yuille, 2001). The technique was first developed in the early 90s and has been modified over time to align with developments in theory, practice, and empirical literature. Over time the protocol has also been modified to ensure that investigators consider the cultural background of interviewees (Yuille, Cooper & Hervé, 2009). This protocol aims to minimize any trauma the child may experience during the interview; to maximize the amount and quality of information gathered from the child while minimizing any contamination of that information; and to maintain the integrity of the investigative process for all parties involved. The term “step-wise” refers to the use of several steps or phases that occur over the course of the interview:
- Rapport building
The first phase of this interview involves the interviewer building rapport with the child. This could involve asking some basic questions about the child, such as “What is your favorite subject at school?”. The rapport building phase allows interviewers to get a grasp of the child’s language abilities and physical responses (i.e. eye contact, shifting movement). - Telling the truth
The next phase of the Step-Wise Interview involves establishing the need to tell the truth. This involves the interviewer asking the child to describe what it means to tell the truth, and to tell a lie. If the child is not able to distinguish between the truth and a lie, interviewers know to proceed with caution when asking questions. - Introducing the topic of concern
The next phase is introducing the topic of concern with the child. The interviewer asks the child if they know why they are meeting, and asks general questions such as “Do you want to talk to me about anything that has happened to you?” This phase aims to elicit a disclosure of the events from the child. However, if this general line of questioning does not prompt the child to share any details, more specific questions may be asked before shifting back to a general and open form of questioning. - Free narrative
After this phase has been completed, the child is asked to describe the events using free narrative. This is the most important phase of the Step-Wise Interview, as during this stage the child will recall the events to the best of their ability, without being interrupted by the interviewer. Prompting questions such as “What happened next?” may be asked during this phase. - General questions
Following the free narrative phase, the interviewer will engage in a line of open questioning with the child. The interviewee will ask more specific questions regarding the incident and ask the child to elaborate if possible. - Specific questions (when necessary)
An optional phase of the Step-Wise Interview is specific questioning, which is only used in cases where insufficient information was gathered during the previous steps. This is also used in cases of inconsistencies during the free narrative to improve the clarity of the recorded statement. - Interview aids (when necessary)
Sometimes interviewers will use interview aids such as anatomically detailed dolls or create a “W-H chart” where the child can list who, what, where, when and how related to the incident. - Concluding the interview
The interviewer concludes the interview by thanking the child, regardless of the outcome of the interview. Interviewers will ask children if they have any questions and will explain to the child what may happen during the investigation (Yuille, 2001).
The Step-Wise Interview protocol is widely used for child forensic interviews in Canada, as well as in the United States and United Kingdom; however, like most protocols it has not been subject to rigorous empirical study (Brubacher, Roberts, Cooper, Price, Barry & Vanderloon, 2018). One study from 2003 compared the Step-Wise Interview and two other interview protocols: a doll-play interview and the Modified Structured Interview (MSI)Footnote 4, specifically testing the follow-up questioning procedures of the techniques and how they probe memory (Lindberg, Tantalo Chapman, Samsock, Thomas, & Lindberg, 2003). The experiment involved 64 children who were shown a film where a mother slapped her child in the face, and the children were given a suggestion and deliberate coaching from the experimenter. The results found that children receiving the Step-Wise and MSI protocols recalled more items during the free-recall session, while the MSI generated the most correct room descriptors compared to the other techniques.
Narrative Elaboration Interview
The narrative elaboration interview protocol was designed to help children overcome developmental limitations in memory and communication (Saywitz & Snyder, 1996). Narrative elaboration builds on the CI and incorporates several experimental procedures that have been proven to enhance children’s memory performance. These include: 1) teaching the child strategies to improve memory recall; 2) providing visual cues; and 3) providing children with opportunities to practice the strategies, providing them feedback, encouragement, and reminders to use the newly learned techniques (Saywitz & Snyder, 1996).
This interview protocol begins by interviewers teaching children a strategy used to retrieve details of an event by organizing it into several categories: participants, setting, actions, conversation/affective states, and consequences. Each of these categories is represented by a drawing on a small card and reminds children to report in as much detail as possible for each category. In the beginning of the interview, children are asked to practice using these cards to describe events. The interviewer may ask a child to use the cards to describe an unrelated event to practice using this memory retrieval strategy. When the child moves onto a free narrative of the event, interviewers may hold up one of the category cards and inquire if the card reminds the child to share something else, which provides opportunities for unbiased elaboration.
The narrative elaboration protocol is well suited for child forensic interviews given the careful consideration of a child’s ability to recall information relevant to the investigation. One study examining the effectiveness of the narrative elaboration interviewing technique on children aged 6-11 found that children who were given a narrative elaboration interview demonstrated a 53% improvement in spontaneous recall (Saywitz & Goodman, 1996).
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