Foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and Investigative interviewing: A systematic review highlighting clinical and legal implications and recommendations

Abstract

Individuals with foetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) are estimated to be 19 times more likely to encounter the criminal justice system (CJS) in comparison to individuals without FASD. During encounters with the CJS, investigative interviews are employed to obtain accurate information from suspects, victims or witnesses of crime. A systematic search using PRISMA guidelines was performed to identify empirical studies published that have explored the questioning of the FASD population within the CJS and the vulnerabilities of FASD-impacted individuals during investigative interviewing. A total of 383 studies were identified from the databases searched and 7 further studies were identified from Google Scholar. After deduplication, abstract and title screening, the full text of 23 studies were assessed for inclusion and 5 were included in the narrative synthesis of results. Two papers were empirical studies focussed on the performance of FASD-impacted individuals during investigative interviewing. Whilst the first study found the FASD population susceptible to suggestions, the second (a case study), identified the ploys employed during investigative interviewing to obtain a confession. Three papers studied the wider vulnerabilities of FASD-impacted individuals and found diminished psycho-legal abilities, increased risk of recidivism and biological, psychological and social factors that

Immediate and repeat interrogative suggestibility in a sample of adolescents with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

“…This article presents an addition to the sparse empirical literature. Although reviews exist (Brown et al, 2016, 2020; Mukherjee et al, 2023) and qualitative studies have been undertaken with individuals with FASD which highlight interrogative suggestibility (Gilbert et al, 2023), this is the first study to present experimental findings from the assessment of interrogative suggestibility of individuals with FASD upon immediate assessment and after 1 week of reassessment.…”

“…A recent systematic review highlighted relatively little empirical investigation of interrogative suggestibility in individuals with FASD (Gilbert et al, 2022). The only peer‐reviewed experimental study is the pilot study by Brown et al (2011) that involved seven adult males with FASD, where they were found to be more significantly suggestible in comparison to normative scores.…”