Child sexual abuse allegations: Reliability of criteria-based content analysis.

Abstract

Statement Validity Analysis (SVA), an assessment system for the credibility of children's allegations of sexual abuse, has recently undergone quantification and empirical testing. Twenty-three videotapes of investigative interviews of confirmed child sexual abuse victims were obtained for an interrater reliability analysis. Each tape was rated by two of four trained raters according to the criteria-based content analysis (CBCA) procedure of the SVA method. The average proportion agreement (.75) was equivalent to the value (.72) reported by Steller (1989). but the chance-corrected reliabilities of the CBCA criteria varied from moderate to low (Maxwell's RE coefficient of agreement range = -.22 to 1.00). The criteria need more explicit, behaviorally anchored definitions, and rater training needs to focus on the identified problem criteria. Potential limitations of interpretation include the small restricted sample, the use of uncontrolled community interviews, and the rating of videotapes rather than transcripts of the interviews.Given the large number of child sexual abuse cases investigated every year, there is widespread agreement on the need for a reliable, valid, and practical method for evaluating credibility at the investigatory stage (Wakefield & Underwager, I988, 1991;White & Quinn, 1988). The admissibility of credibility assessment for purposes of adjudication remains controversial (State v. Batangan, 1990;State v.

Undeutsch hypothesis and Criteria Based Content Analysis: A meta-analytic review

“…The literature cites the age of the child, the research paradigm (field studies vs. experimental laboratory studies), and the type of design (within-or between-subject), which may mediate the results. Numerous studies have found a correlation between age and total CBCA score, i.e., the older the child, the greater probability of scoring high on this instrument (Anson, Golding, & Gully, 1993;Buck et al, 2002;Craig, Scheibe, Raskin, Kircher, & Dodd, 1999;Horowitz, Lamb, Esplin, Boychuk, Krispin, & Reiter-Lavery, 1997;Lamb, Sternberg, Esplin, Hershkowitz, & Orbach, 1997;Roma, San Martini, Sabatello, Tatarelli, & Ferracuti, 2011). Moreover, if we take into account the child's development, it is probable that to some extent the presence of certain criteria is influenced by the child's age.…”

“…Nevertheless, some studies failed to report estimates of reliability or reported several estimates. In the latter case, the reliability index ( between-rater agreement indexes were excluded as they do not measure reliability) best fits the data distribution according to the conclusions of Anson et al (1993) and Horowitz et al (1997). Moreover, reliability was not systematically and homogeneously informed (i.e., the statistic provided was either on each criteria and the total criteria, only the total, only the criteria, or only the range for each criterion).…”

Is it Possible to Establish the Truth of a Child's Statement Alleging Sexual Abuse?

“…More effective and accurate results for CBCA seem to require the addition of non-verbal information. Anson et al (1993) had trained raters apply CBCA to 23 confirmed cases of child sex abuse. Their endorsement of the CBCA total score was lower than the confirmed group in the Esplin et al (1988) study, and only a moderate to low chance-corrected reliability of the CBCA was achieved.…”

Recent legal trends in child sexual abuse cases: Direction for child protection workers

“…Increasingly, questions have been raised about fabricated charges of sexual abuse and investigators' use of improper means to get a child to admit to an incident of abuse (Anson, Golding, & Gully, 1993;Bikel, 1993;Conte, 1992;Milchman, 1992;Patterson, 1992;Sherman, 1993). The stigma attached to an innocent person as a child molester can never be undone.…”