Helen L. Westcott

The Memorandum of Good Practice : theory versus application

OBJECTIVE The goal of this study was to evaluate the quality of investigative interviews in England and Wales since implementation of the Memorandum of Good Practice (MOGP), which specified how forensic interviews of alleged child abuse victims should be conducted. METHOD Transcripts of 119 videotaped interviews of alleged victims between the ages of 4 and 13 years were obtained from 13 collaborating police forces. Trained raters then classified the types of prompts used by the investigators to elicit substantive information from the children, and tabulated the number of forensically relevant details provided by the children in each response. RESULTS Like their counterparts in the United States, Israel, and Sweden, forensic interviewers in England and Wales relied heavily on option-posing prompts, seldom using open-ended utterances to elicit information from the children. Nearly 40% of the information obtained was elicited using option-posing and suggestive prompts, which are known to elicit less reliable information than open-ended prompts do. CONCLUSION Despite the clarity and specificity of the MOGP, its implementation appears to have had less effect on the practices of forensic interviewers in the field than was hoped. Further work should focus on ways of training interviewers to implement the superior practices endorsed by the MOGP and similar professional guidelines.

Annotation: The Abuse of Disabled Children

Open almost any recent social work magazine, or child protection text, and some reference to the abuse of disabled children will be included. Yet awareness of abuse within this group has resulted from a relatively recent growth of interest on the part of psychologists and social work and child protection professionals. Previously, sociocultural and political factors contributed to an otherwise muted response to research dating back to the 1960s, which clearly documents abuse of children who have an impairment or “developmental disability” of some kind. Reviewing this research reveals as much about societys reaction to disability and to disabled children, as it does about the abuse itself. This Annotation presents research in relation to three issues: (1) prevalence of abuse of disabled children; (2) responding to abuse; and (3) preventing abuse.

The impact of questioning style on the content of investigative interviews with suspected child sexual abuse victims

Abstract This study explored the influence of question type and interviewer style on the quantity and quality of responses offered by children in interviews for suspected sexual abuse. The analysis covered 36 investigative interviews conducted by polia officers under the Memorandum of Good Practice with children aged 4–7, 8–11 and 12–14 years. The dependent measures were the temporel length of childrens answers and the number of criteria derived from Criteria Based Cornent Analysis (CBCA) they contained. Only 2% of all questions were open-ended, but just 3% were judged leading. Open questions were most effective with 12–14 year olds but not with younger children who provided nose information in response to specific yet not leading or closed questions. Longer answers containing move CBCA criteria were associated with interviews containing many affirmative utterances and verbal affirmations and a brief rapport. The implications of these findings for interview theory and practice are briefly discussed.

Interviewer practice in investigative interviews for suspected child sexual abuse

Abstract Objective: The aim of the research was to analyse interviewer practice in investigative interviews, concentrating on features other than the type of questions asked. Method: Transcripts of 70 videotaped Memorandum interviews from England and Wales were coded using a specifically developed scheme. Children were aged from under 7 to 12 years. Aspects of interviewer practice that were recorded included implementation of the different phases of the interview, interviewer distortions, and other problematic interviewer behaviours, e.g. excessive familiarity, inappropriate disbelief, etc. Results: A number of problems were noted in the transcripts. Rapport, closure and free narrative phases varied in the degree to which they were present, and in their quality even when included. Discussions of truth and lies in the rapport phase were at a basic level that did not include intention to deceive. Over half the sample included interviewer distortions, and other instances of problematic behaviours were also noted. Conclusions: The results of the study support and extend earlier research, and suggest a number of areas requiring attention. The importance of interviewer training is highlighted, and further discussion is required as to why such training does not appear to be implemented in practice.

Improving the quality of investigative interviews for suspected child abuse: A case study

Abstract This paper reports a case study of a joint police–social services project, which aimed to improve the quality of investigative interviews for suspected child abuse. Thirteen English police officers and social workers who had previously participated in training according to the Memorandum of Good Practice (Home Office 2002) and carried out some investigative interviews, participated in a number of project components over a 9-month period. These included: an initial training and awareness revision day; review sessions in which videotaped interviews were evaluated by the interviewers and project group; aides-memoires for phases of the interviews (e.g. rapport, closure); and audiotaped debriefs carried out by interviewers immediately after the investigative interview had taken place. Interviews carried out pre- and post-project were analysed for evidence of improvement in practice. Specifically, attention focused on the quality of rapport, free narrative, questioning, closure, and the number and type of details elicited from the child. A number of methodological challenges were encountered in the project, and ultimately, evidence of improvement was limited. However, encouraging findings were noted with respect to the quality of closure, inclusion of ground rules and practice interviews. The findings are discussed in the context of the difficulties in training interviewers and sustaining improvements in skills as well as knowledge.

‘What else should I say?’ An analysis of the question repetition practiced in police interviews of 4–11‐year‐olds

Forensic interviewing protocols caution against question repetition, because it is believed that repetition may encourage detrimental changes in the accuracy of children’s responses. Transcripts of 95 police interviews, with children aged between 4 and 11 years, who had made allegations of abuse, were examined for instances of question repetition. Repetitions were coded for their position in the interview, the number, style, intent and consequence of repetition. Question repetition was involved in 25% of all questions asked and led to changes in 75% of children’s responses. These findings have major implications for the conduct of forensic interviews.