Responding to Reluctance in Child Forensic Interviews

What is it about?

When concerns arise that a child might be suffering abuse, they might be referred to the child protection or police where such alleged victims are interviewed about what might have happened to them. However, children who have experienced abuse do not always talk about this in straightforward ways with authorities and might be reluctant to discuss their experience. Such reluctancy might be reflected in children avoiding to respond questions during an interview, such as by saying that they don't know something or don't remember what exactly happened. Some children even outright deny that anything happened, even if it actually did. In the current study we examined how professionals at Dutch child protective services responded to avoidant ("I don't know", "I don't remember") and denial ("Nothing happened") statements made by children during such interviews. Moreover, we analysed how these reactions in turn affected how children talked about their experiences and how likely they were to provide information about the alleged event. We found that interviewers oftentimes rejected avoidant and denial statements, for example by repeating their initial questions or asking further follow-up questions about the same details or events. This was the case even when interviewers were trained in current best-practice interviewing. Yet, children were more likely to provide additional information when their seemingly reluctant responses were met with acceptance by the interviewer, such as moving on to other topics. We provide recommendations for child interviewing training.

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Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Child abuse is a serious, global problem. In child abuse cases the outcome of a trial can sometimes rely entirely on testimonial evidence given by the child. It is i important that if something did happen, children come forward about these experiences so that they are not put back into a dangerous situation. However, it is also important that a child interviewed for unfounded concerns does not make false allegations. In short, it is important that children's accounts are as valid and complete as possible and how children are interviewed and how interviewers react to different ways children disclose their experiences is of critical importance in obtaining valid accounts.