Assessing the quality of child investigative interviewing in the Netherlands

Abstract

Using evidence-based guidelines to interview children is an important means to obtain complete and accurate accounts. In the current study, we examined the quality of child investigative interviewing in the Netherlands. To examine this, we compared the Dutch Scenario Model with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Protocol and interviews from countries that did not follow a specific protocol. Our principal result was that Dutch child interviewers rarely asked recommended open prompts that are known to elicit detailed and accurate testimonies from children. Furthermore, we found that the scenario model contained the highest number of directive questions compared with interviews from other countries. Our findings show that the Dutch Scenario Model is not well aligned with current research-based recommendations for interviewing children.

The burden of proof of the Dutch police: Why the scenario model continues to deliver low‐quality child interviews

“…We fully agree that the first empirical paper on the quality of the Scenario Model has limitations (Otgaar et al, ). Like Rispens et al (in press) correctly stated, we only concentrated on the type of questions used in the Scenario Model interviews, to estimate interview quality, a strategy that has been used in previous studies (e.g., Cyr & Lamb, ; Orbach et al, ).…”

“…In a recent paper (Otgaar et al, ), we reported on the first empirical investigation into the Scenario Model, an interview method used by the Dutch police to interview alleged child victims of abuse. We found that open prompts, known to elicit detailed and accurate statements in children, were rarely used.…”

Commentary: Assessing the quality of child investigative interviewing in the Netherlands

“…In our opinion, Otgaar and colleagues () state wrongly that the Scenario Model does not focus on the continuous use of open‐ended prompts. In handouts, guidance books, e‐learning modules, and training of the Scenario Model, there is much emphasis on different types of questions and their effect on the retrieval of children's memory (Dekens & Van der Sleen, ).…”

“…Otgaar and colleagues () judged interviews as “high quality” if open prompts (cued invitations) predominated and as “low quality” if directives and option‐posing questions predominated. In our opinion, their definition of a good interview might be too narrow, since other indicators of a good interview, like the absence of suggestive questions, can be specified.…”

“…In this issue, a study is published concerning the quality of child investigative interviewing in the Netherlands (Otgaar et al, ), in which Dutch interviews based on the Scenario Model are compared to interviews from other countries based on the NICHD Protocol or no protocol. NICHD stands for National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Protocol (Lamb, Orbach, Hershkowitz, Esplin, & Horowitz, ).…”