This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) improved lawyers' questioning strategies when examining child witnesses in England. The government's Section 28 pilot study involved judges holding Ground Rules Hearings, during which restrictions and limitations were placed on the…

This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 (S28) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act and the introduction of mandatory ground rules hearings reduced the complexity of the questions English lawyers asked when examining child witnesses. This study compared cases with (n = 43) and without (n = 43) the S28 special measures…

The current study explored the expected consequences of disclosure discussed by 204 5- to 13-year-old suspected victims of child sexual abuse during the course of investigative interviews conducted using the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol. Expected consequences were mentioned in nearly half of all interviews, with older children and those…

Objectives: The study was designed to assess the effectiveness of the flexibly structured NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol for child sexual abuse (CSA) investigative interviews by police officers and mental health workers in Quebec. The NICHD Protocol was designed to operationalize "best practice" guidelines and to help forensic…

Objective: The goal of the present study was to examine how children disclosed sexual abuse by alleged perpetrators who were not family members. Methodology: Thirty alleged victims of sexual abuse and their parents were interviewed. The children were interviewed using the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol by six experienced youth…

Objectives: The present study was designed to explore structural differences between forensic interviews in which children made allegations and those in which children did not make allegations. Methodology: Fifty forensic interviews of 4- to 13-year-old suspected victims of abuse who did not disclose abuse during the interview were compared with…

Objective: To understand how the Swedish legal system perceives and handles mentally handicapped children who may have been victimized. Method: Twenty-two judicial districts in Sweden provided complete files on 39 District Court cases (including the Appeals Court files on 17 of these cases) involving children with learning difficulties or other…

Interviewed 145 children between ages 4 and 12 years within days or months after an alleged incident of sexual abuse. Found that the proportion of substantive investigative utterances eliciting new details increased with age and decreased after delays of more than 1 month. Age related to length and richness of informative responses. (Author/KB)

Transcripts of forensic interviews with 98 alleged victims of child sexual abuse were analyzed for key content criteria. Other information on these cases was independently evaluated by professionals. Key criteria more often appeared in accounts independently rated as likely to have actually occurred, and several criteria were helpful in…

Objective: To introduce and evaluate a structured interview protocol designed for investigative interviews of youthful alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse. Method: Seventy-two alleged perpetrators ranging from 9 to 14 years of age (M=12 years) were interviewed by 1 of 13 experienced youth investigators, employed by the Israeli Ministry of…

This study examined the accuracy of a 13-year-old girl's account of a sexually abusive incident. Information given by the victim was compared with an audiotaped record. Over 50% of information reported by the victim was corroborated by the audio record and 64% was confirmed by more than one source. (Author/CR)

The impact of anatomical dolls on reports provided by 3- to 12-year-old alleged sexual abuse victims (N = 178) was examined. Children produced as many details in response to open-ended invitations with and without the dolls. In response to directive questions, the 3- to 6-year-olds were more likely to reenact behaviorally than to report verbally,…

Objective: To identify characteristics of suspected child abuse victims that are associated with disclosure and nondisclosure during formal investigations. Methodology: The database included all suspected cases of physical and sexual abuse investigated in the state of Israel between 1998 and 2002. All investigative interviews were conducted using…