Suggestions for Improving Interviews in Child Protection Agencies

Wood, James M.; McClure, Kimberley A.; Birch, Rebecca A.

doi:10.1177/1077559596001003005

Cited by 46 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Studies that examined the effect of rapport on children have consistently found that building rapport increases the amount of accurate information children provide and decreases their suggestibility to misinformation (Goodman & Bottoms, 1993;Powell & Lancaster, 2003;Wood et al, 1996). On the contrary, research on adult witness accuracy has painted a less clear picture of how rapport affects recall accuracy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Specifically, children provide more details about their experiences after rapport has been established (Goodman & Bottoms, 1993;Powell & Lancaster, 2005;Wood, McClure, & Birch, 1996). Also, children who are initially reluctant to disclose their experiences are more likely to do so if rapport is established than children who are asked to disclose their experiences without first establishing rapport (Orbach, Shiloach, & Lamb, 2007).…”

Section: Rapport Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, rapport building is important in clinical settings because patients may be unwilling to share their thoughts and emotions with the therapist. The therapist must then spend some time building rapport in order to ensure that the client feels comfortable talking about private matters (Morgan & Friedemann, 1988;Wood et al, 1996). Similarly, when dealing with sensitive issues such as sexual abuse, investigators must develop a comfortable relationship with suspected victims so that they feel at ease talking about potentially embarrassing or traumatic experiences with a stranger (Aldridge & Wood, 1998;Goodman & Bottoms, 1993;Hynan, 1999;McBride, 1996;Powell & Thomson, 1994;Ruddock, 2006).…”

Section: Rapport Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Rapport Building in Police Interrogations: Can Rapport Improve the Diagnosticity of Confession Evidence?

Villalba¹

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Police investigators rely heavily on eliciting confessions from suspects to solve crimes and prosecute offenders. Therefore, it is essential to develop evidence-based interrogation techniques that will motivate guilty suspects to confess but minimize false confessions from the innocent. Currently, there is little scientific support for specific interrogation techniques that may increase true confessions and decrease false confessions. Rapport building is a promising possibility. Despite its recommendation in police interrogation guidelines, there is no scientific evidence showing the effect of rapport building in police interrogations. The current study examined, experimentally, whether using rapport as an interrogation technique would influence participants' decisions to confess to a wrongdoing. It was hypothesized that building rapport with participants would lead to more true confessions and fewer false confessions than not building rapport. One hundred and sixty nine undergraduates participated in the study.Participants worked on logic problems together and individually, with a study confederate. The confederate asked half of the participants for help in one of the individual problems -effectively breaking the rules of the study. After working on these vii problems, a research assistant playing the role of interviewer came into the room, built rapport or not with participants, accused all participants of cheating by sharing answers on the individual problems, and asked them to sign a statement admitting their guilt.Results indicated that guilty participants were more likely to sign the confession statement than innocent participants. However, there were no significant differences on participants' confession decisions based on the level of rapport they experienced. Results do not provide support for the hypothesis that building rapport increases the likelihood of obtaining true confessions and decreases the likelihood of obtaining false confessions.These findings suggest that, despite the overwhelming recommendation for the use of rapport with suspects, its actual implementation may not have a direct impact on the outcome of interrogations.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Rapport Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Rapport Buildingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Effect of Rapport Building in Police Interrogations: Can Rapport Improve the Diagnosticity of Confession Evidence?

Villalba¹

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“…Furthermore, recommendations are made with regards 4 to the use of specific questions; they are to be used to clarify or extend information that the child initially provided in his or her abuse related free narrative. When ending the session, the investigators are to close the interview in a supportive manner and ensure that any questions the child may have about the investigative process are answered.However, researchers have observed and reported that child protection workers (Warren, Woodall, Hunt, & Perry, 1996;Wood, McClure, & Birch, 1996) and trained police detectives (Davies, Westcott, et al , in press;Geiselman et al, 1993) often do not follow the prescribed protocols when interviewing children. Not following a structured interview protocol that incorporates effective child interviewing techniques can create legal difficulties.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(2) Accuracy is facilitated when questions concern salient and meaningful events. Taken together, the guidelines and protocols reviewed in this section recommend that the initial focus of the interview should be on providing the child with an opportunity to become familiar with the interviewer and the interview process (Wood et al, 1996;Yuille, Hunter, et al, 1993). This process is accomplished through rapport building and orienting the child to the types of responses that are expected.…”

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confidence: 99%

Adherence to the step-wise interview protocol by trained RCMP investigators during forensic sexual abuse interviews with children

Hewlett¹

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The purpose of this study was to determine, using descriptive statistics, whether investigators who were trained to use the Step-Wise Interview during forensic interviews with children (a) adhered to the structure of that protocol , (b) used inappropriate interviewing techniques, and (c) used general and specific questions to elicit information. Fifteen videotaped interviews and their associated transcripts were analyzed . Eight RCMP members conducted 12 interviews with children under a-yearsold and 3 with children 8-to 12-years-old. Only initial interviews with children whose cases were closed were included in the sample. Results showed that coverage of the key elements prescribed in the protocol varied between the two age groups and between interview status (i.e., No Disclosure or Disclosure of sexual abuse). The key elements associated with opening the interviews were well covered; however, the rapport building key elements were covered by less than half of the investigators in the No Disclosure interviews, with higher coverage in the Disclosure interviews. Few attempts were made to elicit non-abuse life event free narratives from the younger children , and no such attempts were made with the older children. Both general and specific questions were used when introducing the topic of abuse, but specific questions were used more often with the younger children. When abuse was disclosed, the majority of investigators attempted to elicit an abuse-related narrative. Most investigators used a body diagram, and when there were discussions related to body parts and functioning, all of the investigators used the same terminology as the younger children, and the majority did so with the older children. The key elements associated with closing the interview were poorly covered. With the younger children, the percentage of time spent opening the interviews, building rapport, and discussing body iii parts and functioning was similar, regardless of interview status . In the No Disclosure interviews, more time was spent introducing the topic of abuse. There was time spent asking specific abuse-related questions in both types of interviews, but, as expected, in order to clarify and extend the abuse-related information, there was more time spent asking specific questions in the Disclosure interviews. In both types of interviews, the time spent on topics unrelated to the protocol was greater than the time spent in any of the prescribed interview steps, and the least amount of time was spent closing the interviews. In general, most of the interview steps were introduced in the correct StepWise Interview order. However, some investigators skipped some steps, some performed steps that they should not have, and some steps were introduced out of order. Misleading and leading statements and questions rarely occurred, which is consistent with the goal of eliciting uncontaminated testimony. Regardless of interview status, during the first and second halves of the interviews, investigators probed for information almost as often...

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Child Sexual Abuse Evaluations

Kuehnle

2003

Handbook of Psychology

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Accurate estimates of true and false child sexual abuse evades researchers and the determination of whether sexual abuse has occurred is a complex problem. In recent years, the research community has been polarized over whether child victims of sexual abuse or nonabuse are grossly misidentified, to what degree children are suggestible, and whether false positive or false negative errors create the greatest harm. This chapter describes the scientific‐practitioner model for evaluating allegations of child sexual abuse, a model previously proposed by the author. According to this model, conclusions regarding child sexual abuse are based upon empirically established relationships between data and the behavior in question, rather than on subjective opinions. To address critical issues in these assessments, this chapter reviews two sources for information: published research and the law. Child sexual abuse is defined, focusing on risk factors for abuse and the meaning of symptoms. Studies citing the incidence and prevalence of child sexual abuse are reviewed. Topics include early memories, the impact of stress on memory, and the development of autobiographical memory. Since recall is subjected to the effects of suggestibility, research on this topic is considered. The structure of the assessment interview and a review of the research on the three most frequently used evaluation tools (anatomical dolls, projective instruments, and drawings) is described.

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Suggestions for Improving Interviews in Child Protection Agencies

Cited by 46 publications

References 7 publications

The Effect of Rapport Building in Police Interrogations: Can Rapport Improve the Diagnosticity of Confession Evidence?

The Effect of Rapport Building in Police Interrogations: Can Rapport Improve the Diagnosticity of Confession Evidence?

Adherence to the step-wise interview protocol by trained RCMP investigators during forensic sexual abuse interviews with children

Child Sexual Abuse Evaluations

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