Evaluation of the Questions Used to Elicit Evidence About Abuse from Child Witnesses: Australian Study

Abstract

This study provides one of the first objective evaluations of the performance of a group of Australian police officers when conducting interviews about child abuse. The interviews included 136 videotaped child witness statements, conducted between 2001 and 2007 by police officers from two jurisdictions of Australia. The results indicated many positive aspects of the interviewers' performance, including the use of ground rules at the outset of the interview, commencement of the free-narrative account by seeking the children's understanding of the purpose of the interview, and avoidance of suggestive questions. But the interviewers tended to raise issues of contention when the child did not provide an initial disclosure, and the proportion of open-ended questions was low relative to specific cued-recall and closed questions. Further many closed questions raised specific details not yet mentioned by the child. These behaviours were exhibited irrespective of the recency of interview or time since training. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Key words:

• child sexual abuse
• investigative interviewing
• police training

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0775248). The authors acknowledge the support of the managers and police officers who participated in this project. We would also like to thank Belinda Guadagno, Rebecca Smith and Louise Steel for their assistance with coding.