Professionals' Perceptions of a New Model of Sexual Assault Investigation Adopted by Victoria Police

Abstract

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Evaluation of a comprehensive interactive training system for investigative interviewers of children.

“…First, consistent with the prior qualitative research investigating the daily challenges faced by child abuse investigators, a primary theme raised in this study was workload. The high volume of casework, and the urgency with which it must be completed, undermines the completion of professional development activities (Powell & Wright, 2012). Restricting of the time allocated to training and supervision has been reported in almost every investigative interviewer training evaluation (e.g., Clarke & Milne, 2001;Clarke, Milne & Bull, 2004;Davies , Marshall & Robertson, 1998).…”

“…To date, no research has evaluated the efficacy and applicability of child interview protocols from a prosecution perspective. Further, a lack of communication between researchers and stakeholders is a major criticism of previous reforms implemented in large organisations and a fundamental reason for why many reforms have been ineffective (Powell & Wright, 2012;Zweig & Burt, 2003). An evaluation of the utility of interview protocols and whether they meet the requirements of evidence-in-chief from a prosecution perspective was therefore conducted.…”

“…Given that prosecutors are the end-users of child witness' investigative interviews (when presented at court as the children's evidence-in-chief), it is essential that prosecutors are satisfied with the structure and framework of the interviews. A lack of communication and collaboration has been a major criticism of previous ineffective reforms(Powell & Wright, 2012;Zweig & Burt, 2003). Further, one indicator of the success of the new reform is interviewers' adherence to the interview protocol provided in the training.…”

Better Together? A Review of Evidence for Multi-Disciplinary Teams Responding to Physical and Sexual Child Abuse

“…These were retained in the review as these studies provide an important insight into the types of outcomes that workers and clients indicated could be expected from teams, although these studies cannot provide evidence of effectiveness for the approach. A group of studies included in the review (n ¼ 10) were classified as reporting on perceived outcomes; this is not to denigrate the quality of the research, most of these studies were appropriately conducted qualitative studies (e.g., Powell & Wright, 2012). While the views of staff working in multi-disciplinary models are an important bellwether of effectiveness, staff perceptions of the model may be influenced by a variety of other factors.…”

An Overview of Current Initiatives to Improve Child Witness Interviews about Sexual Abuse

“…For example, victims' engagement in the system, and the incidence and detail of their disclosures regarding abuse, are affected by many factors. These include the degree of victim support and methods of engaging families and communities; service providers' knowledge and prioritisation of sexual assault investigation; the physical location of services; the immediacy of service providers' responses; levels of coordination across agencies; strategies for referring children for therapeutic intervention; incorporation of cultural knowledge into service delivery frameworks; processes for dealing with professional work-related stress; and criteria used to refer cases of abuse for potential prosecution (Mace and Powell 2012;Powell et al forthcoming;Powell and Cauchi 2013;Powell, Murfett and Thomson 2010;Powell and Wright 2012).…”