Ann-Christin Cederborg

Interviewing alleged victims with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND When interviewing alleged victims of crime, it is important to obtain reports that are as accurate and complete as possible. This can be especially difficult when the alleged victims have intellectual disabilities (ID). This study explored how alleged victims with ID are interviewed by police officers in Sweden and how this may affect their ability to report information as accurately as possible. METHODS Twelve interviews with 11 alleged victims were selected from a larger sample. The complainants were interviewed when their chronological ages ranged from 6.1 to 22 years. A quantitative analysis examined the type of questions asked and the numbers of words and details they elicited in response. RESULTS Instead of open-ended questions, the interviewers relied heavily on focused questions, which are more likely to elicit inaccurate information. When given the opportunity, the witnesses were able to answer directive questions informatively. CONCLUSIONS Interviewers need special skills in order to interview alleged victims who have ID. In addition to using more open-ended questions, interviewers should speak in shorter sentences.

Young Children's Participation in Family Therapy Talk.

Abstract The lack of empirical knowledge about how young children participate in family therapy talk highlights the question of their participant status in the therapeutic process. The specific question this study addresses is what kind of participant status young children (4-7 years old) acquire in family therapy talk. Time space analyses were compared with word space analyses of childrens participation. Participant status was seen partly as the result of ongoing negotiations. The therapist and parents were the subjects acting with respect to the child, who became the object of their actions. From the perspective of the child, this meant that he or she was primarily accorded the status of a nonperson. The findings of this study raise questions about how family therapy theories have been interpreted in clinical work, especially in therapies concerning families whose young children are symptom-bearers.

Conarration and voice in family therapy: Voicing, devoicing and orchestration

This study explores conarration in family therapy talk. Story-telling plays a crucial r öle in social encounters äs an interactional resource and äs an important way ofdisplaying ones seif and ones version ofthe past. Family life is a rieh arenafor conarration in that families repeatedly have reasons to discuss andevaluate everyday events in which several members have taken pari, negotiating the family s joint biography. Multiparty narration is analyzed in a family therapy case involving conflicting mother-son andhusbandwife alliances. On a discourse level, it is shown how participants voice each others complaints, and how voices are nested and mixed in way s which perpetuate family battles, turning duels into multiparty fights. Narration is discussed in terms of sequential moves, legitimizing same side stories and de-authorizing Opponent side stories. The therapists talk is analyzed in terms of what is here called orchestration, that is way s of making participants listen and talk to each other. In a Situation ofopen and hidden polemics, an important pari of therapists work is to separate family members distinci voices.

Investigative interviewing of alleged child abuse victims: an evaluation of a new training programme for investigative interviewers

This evaluation focused on the developing interviewing skills of 104 active crime investigators in Sweden who participated in six different half-year courses between 2007 and 2010. The courses emphasised a combined model of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Protocol and the PEACE model of investigative interviewing. The teaching was interdisciplinary. The evaluation involved interviews of 208 children, most of whom were suspected victims of physical abuse. The investigators used two-thirds fewer option-posing questions and three times as many invitations after training as they did before training. These data show that the training was very effective in shaping the interviewers’ behaviour into better compliance with internationally recognised guidelines.

Coming of age in family therapy talk: Perspective setting in multiparty problem formulations

Family therapy talk is a rich arena for intergenerational negotiations about family problems and adolescents’ privileges. Such negotiations are discussed here in terms of multiparty problem formulations that raise basic questions about who is entitled to diagnose adolescents’ “problems.” In therapy sequences, it is shown how adolescents’ problems are formulated in terms of blame allocations. On an underlying level, diagnostic negotiations also concern participant status; that is, who will be seen as a full participant and who will be cast as a peripheral participant or nonperson in family talk. In three case studies, it is demonstrated how the therapist acts as an orchestrator of therapy talk, reformulating problems in setting new perspectives between parents and children. In this reformulation process, therapists use a series of discursive strategies that exploit obliqueness in multiparty audience design.

Living with children who have coeliac disease: a parental perspective

BACKGROUND This study explores how a childs coeliac disease (CD) influences the daily life of families because such knowledge can enhance the understanding of how to support family adjustment to a gluten-free diet (GFD). METHODS We used an interpretative phenomenological approach, interviewing 20 parents of 14 children diagnosed with CD about their individual thoughts and beliefs. RESULTS Once parents know, especially when their children are young, they seem to have the capacity to rapidly adapt to GFD, mainly because they notice how quickly their children recover. Parents may have problems controlling how staff at daycare and at school complies with their information about a GFD. CONCLUSIONS To ensure that children with CD are given a GFD at daycare and school, it is necessary for municipalities to educate staff about the disease and to give them the prerequisites for serving a GFD. There is also a need of early identification of children who may have CD. When parents express their worries, not just at the hospital but also at the well-baby clinic and primary care units, supporting treatment could prevent children from suffering from inappropriate food.

Adolescent girls exploited in the sex trade: informativeness and evasiveness in investigative interviews

This study explores the informativeness of 24 adolescents exploited in sex trade in Sweden when they were interviewed by police officers about their experiences. The questions and responses were analysed using coding types developed for research on forensic interviews. Qualitative analyses of the questions resulting in evasive responses and the court files were also done. The findings show that the adolescents were informative yet evasive, specifically when asked open questions. Experiences of violence and interviews conducted soon after the police intervention may result in higher levels of evasiveness. Concurrently, evasiveness seems to be intimately connected to unique circumstances in each case.

The quality of details when children and youths with intellectual disabilities are interviewed about their abuse experiences

The question for this study is to further understand how children and youths with intellectual disabilities (IDs) elicit central and peripheral details when interviewed about their abuse experience ...

Assertions and aspirations: agency among accompanied asylum-seeking children in Sweden

ABSTRACT Research on asylum-seeking children tends to disregard those in parental care. In particular, little is known about children’s own perspectives. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Sweden, this article explores the ways in which accompanied children experience and seek to overcome challenges posed by asylum reception. The focus is on children’s ambition and ability to form their everyday life, given their ambiguous position of tentative emplacement. Theoretical inspiration is sought in Ortner’s ‘agency of personal projects’ and de Certeau’s concept of ‘tactics’, analysed through the prism of liminality. The study found that while some tactics aimed at avoiding situations and settings that made children uncomfortable, others involved influencing their situation through pursuing ‘personal projects’. Many children’s strivings were directed at creating ‘a normal life’ and a place for themselves in Swedish society. The findings challenge the idea that accompanied children are more protected from difficulties and responsibilities than those seeking asylum alone.

Legislators’ perceptions of unaccompanied children seeking asylum

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore how individual legislators perceive unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, their life situation, needs and best interests.Design/methodology/approach– ...