Vulnerable Witnesses: Children - complete

Question 1

Who is a child?

Answer 1

Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999)

- anyone under the age of 18 at the time of the hearing

Question 2

What is the purpose of a child interview?

Answer 2

Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings (2011) “to ascertain the witnesses account of alleged event events and any other information that would assist the investigation”

Important to obtain information that is:
Accurate
Detailed
Investigation-relevant

Question 3

What are the statistics for child witnesses?

Answer 3

NSPCC (2014) - 73900 children under 16 report being victim of sexual abuse - 18700 offences recorded by police - 3600 defendants brought to court - 2100 guilty verdicts

Children are often sole source of information for child sexual abuse cases
Interviewing is therefore a vital step for case progression

Question 4

What are the issues with child memory?

Answer 4

Bauer (2013) children appear to be able to remember some things from 2 months old - Rivee-Collier et al, children remember to kick when attached to a mobile
BUT

To b interviewed children must be able to verbally recall events

Increase in age results in decrease in forgetting and recall becomes more accurate

Infantile Amnesia affects early memory

Question 5

What aspects of the event can affect memory?

Answer 5

Participation - children tend to remember events they took part in better than events that they just watched (Baker-Ward et al, 1990)

Stress (Quas et al, 1999)

Repetition - Strengthens memory, but greater reliance on script (Roberts and Powell, 2001)

Question 6

What are the issues related to language within child witnesses?

Answer 6

Children’s vocabulary generally develops quickly between 2 and 3 (Ceci et al, 2003)

But may say words in correct context without necessarily understanding them (Lamb et al, 2002)

Temporal understanding - children need to develop knowledge of meaning of temporal words, knowledge of temporal patterns , sufficiently detailed memory of event to fit into temporal patterns

continues to develop up until 10 years

Question 7

What are the issues with social context?

Answer 7

Not a normal child adult conversation (Lamb and Brown, 2006)
With age, children understand better what is required (Brown and Lamb, 2015)

Question 8

What is the effect of suggestibility?

Answer 8

The extent to which a child will adjust their recall depending on external factors to their own memory

Appears to change with age, but not necessarily in a straightforward manner

Question 9

What were the findings of Leichtman and Ceci (1995)?

Answer 9

3-6 year olds, Live event > interviewed once a week for 4 weeks
10 weeks after visit = final neutral interview for all children

4 conditions
Stereotyping - before Sam Stone visit, read stories about Sam Stone
Suggestion - Interviewed using suggestive questions
Suggestion and Stereotyping
Control - no suggestion and no stereotyping

Control least accurate, followed by stereotype then suggestion then both
Age effects - older children more resistant to suggestibility in all conditions

Question 10

What are the effects of Individual Differences on child witnesses?

Answer 10

Bruck and Melnyk (2004) reviewed 69 studies
Cognitive - less developed language skills associated with suggestibility, positive relationship between creativity and suggestibility
Demographic - gender and socio-economic status had no relationship with suggestibility
Psycho-social - low self-concept, poor maternal attachment, poor parent-child relationship had highest correlations with suggestibility

Question 11

What is Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings (ABE, 2011)?

Answer 11

Outlines procedures for interviewing vulnerable, intimidated and significant witnesses and victims
Covers PEACE
Includes:
Building rapport, types of questions, advice on drawings, props etc. Intermediaries and NICHD

Question 12

What is the NICHD protocol?

Answer 12

National Institute of Child Health and Developmental Protocol (Lamb et al, 2008)

More structured and script like

Includes:
Rapport-building 
Practice narrative
Question types
Dealing with questions about touch
Adolescent and child versions

Question 13

What is the revised NICHD Protocol?

Answer 13

Emphasis on social support

Encourage to address child by name, welcome them, acknowledge and explore feelings

Question 14

What special measures can be found in court?

Answer 14

Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) 
Screens
CCTV link
Give evidence in private
Remove all wigs and gowns 
Video record 
Intermediaries 
Communication aids

Question 15

What is an open ended question?

Answer 15

Allow interviewee to give free recall and control over what they disclose

Used in investigative interviews

Question 16

What is a specific closed question?

Answer 16

Asks for a more narrow account of a specific aspect of the event.

Used in investigative interviews

Question 17

What is a forced-choice question?

Answer 17

Includes a number of choices from which the interviewee should select their answer.

Not used in investigative interviews

Question 18

What is a multiple question type?

Answer 18

Asking a number of questions in one utterance, or for information about more than one subject.

Not used in investigative interviews

Question 19

What is a leading question?

Answer 19

Questions that suggest one answer is correct (regardless of whether it is or not), or include information that has not previously been mentioned by the interviewee.

Not used in investigative interviews

Question 20

What did Carter, Bottoms and Levine (1996) find when investigating simple vs. complex questions?

Answer 20

5 -7 year olds
Asked simple and complex question about crayons

Found

Complex questions led to less free recall and correct responses, more omissions
5 children didn’t understand question

Question 21

What did Hardy and Van Leeuwen (2004) find when investigating direct vs indirect questions?

Answer 21

3-6 year olds

Found

Younger children reported less information to indirect probes than older but similar to direct probes

Younger - more accurate to indirect if practice narrative but to direct if general event is discussed

Older - More accurate to indirect if general event

Question 22

What are intermediaries? (Language)

Answer 22

Aid communication between interviewer and interviewee i.e. language therapist

Role in process:
Pre-interview assessment
Give interviewer guidance
Sit in interview to ask if re-phrasing is needed

Question 23

Are intermediaries effective?

Answer 23

Plotnikoff and Woolfson (2007) - positive feedback from carers

But limited evaluative research

Ridley, Van Rheede and Wilcock (2015) - presence of intermediary improved perceptions of child interview transcript for police officers and mock jurors and barristers

Henry et al (2017) - Intermediaries increased correct details without affecting error rates

Question 24

What is Rapport- building? (Social context and memory)

Answer 24

Create comfortable interviewee-interviewer atmosphere

Role in process:
Separate section at beginning of interview
Neutral questions encourage positive discussion

Question 25

How effective is rapport-building?

Answer 25

Enhanced vs non-enhanced rapport building
NICHD protocol
Less reluctance to disclose (Hershkowitz et al, 2013)

Question 26

How effective is social support?

social context and memory

Answer 26

Non-verbal and verbal behaviours used throughout interview (Hershkowitz, 2011)

Children perceive interviewers who smile and don’t fidget as more friendly, less strict/ bored/ stressed (Almerigogna et al, 2008)

Waterhouse et al (2015) reduces susceptibility to misleading questions, no effect on response to leading questions , reduces anxiety

Non-supportive comments associated with less disclosure (Lewy et al, 2015)

Doesn’t seem to be used in interviews (Waterhouse et al, 2016)

Question 27

How effective are single interviews?

Answer 27

Guidelines all say to conduct only one interview due to risks of:
Increase confirmation bias, suggestibility, anxiety and more inconsistent details.

Question 28

How effective are multiple interviews?

Answer 28

Research suggests multiple interviews could be useful for new accurate information (La Rooy et al, 2009) - Reminisce

Increase understanding of social context

Children less anxious, no contradictions

Risk only higher if they don’t follow best practice

Question 29

What are anatomically detailed dolls?

Answer 29

Designed to overcome language limitations by allowing children to act out events with dolls

Problems:
Dual representation- difficult in under 3yrs (DeLoache and Marzoff, 1995)
Suggestibility - False reports of genital touch (Bruck et al, 1995)

Question 30

How effective is the Sketch MRC?

Answer 30

Wilcock, Dando and Hobson

IV - Sketch MRC, MRC and No MRC

9-10 year olds with a week delay

More correct detail in Sketch MRC and more accurate

Question 31

What are the issues with these studies?

Answer 31

Ecological Validity of experimental studies - stress of interview, delay and event (ethical constraints)

Field studies - no way to assess accuracy, variations between interviews

Question 32

What does research highlight on child cross-examinations?

Answer 32

Zajac, Gross and Hayne (2003) - Field study - court interactions not tailored to age
Zajac and Hayne (2003) - Lab study - misled vs control children - number o changes in testimony during CE