Basic Principles of Interviewing the Child Eyewitness

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss basic principles of interviewing alleged child victims of sexual abuse. We have divided our review into three distinct yet complementary (and at times, somewhat overlapping) sections: the interviewee, the interviewer and the interview. Issues for forensic interviewers to consider when questioning child victims are outlined. In this paper we assume the interview goal is to elicit accurate eyewitness accounts. We acknowledge that child forensic interviewing is a large and growing field of study; therefore, the topics included in each section are not exhaustive of all factors examined in the extant literature. Moreover despite the vast research base, there are still many factors that can affect actual forensic investigations that remain largely unexplored. For present purposes, we consider who is being interviewed, who is conducting the interview, and how the interview is conducted. Before discussing our selected factors, we briefly summarize evidence regarding children's memory for stressful events as these are inherently the types of events interviewers ask children to recount. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)