What is effective in eliciting information from child sexual victims? Evidence from a cross-cultural research and a correlational study in a Brazilian sample of forensic interviews

A child/adolescent forensic interview for the purposes of finding out about allegations of abuse or criminal activity has been termed a "challenging conversation" for both interviewee and interviewer (Steele, 2012). The... [ view full abstract ]

A child/adolescent forensic interview for the purposes of finding out about allegations of abuse or criminal activity has been termed a "challenging conversation" for both interviewee and interviewer (Steele, 2012). The ability to disclose sensitive information by children is mediated by variables such as age, type of abuse or other criminal activity they may have witnessed, and support of their primary caregiver(s). The ability of the interviewer to conduct a forensically relevant interview is mediated by training, experience, and ability to establish a safe and supportive relational environment with the interviewee. Although forensic interviewers are familiar with best practices, preferred and adequate question format, and interview protocols, research has show it is common for interviewers to fail to integrate this knowledge into real world practices (e.g. Fisher & Geiselman, 2010; Kask, 2012). In order to assess the relationship between the interviewer’s skills and children’s utterances, a sample of 31 interviews conducted by psychologists and social workers in a Brazilian Protective Court were analyzed. This presentation shows the results and recommendations derived from the outcomes of a correlational study between variables associated with the interviewers' and interviewees' in this sample. A code system based on free recall memory, recognition memory and funnel approach concepts was developed to analyze these interviews in a cross-cultural context with both American and Brazilian coders and interviews. The resulting code system holds cross-cultural equivalence with a good independent interrater agreement (Kappa >.68). Sole coding of the sample showed interviewers frequently used recognition memory prompts, supportive utterances and utterances designed to keep children talking. Children responded providing frequently uninformative, but also several forensic informative utterances. Correlation among children’s and interviewer’s variables shed light on effective interviewer`s practices and the possibility of using the code system to improve forensic interviews.