Improving the competency of police officers in conducting investigative interviews with children

Abstract

Despite the provision of ‘best‐practice’ guidelines regarding conducting interviews with children, research indicates that most investigative interviews do not adhere to these guidelines. To date, there has been little discussion in the literature of the conditions that are needed to promote and sustain expertise in forensic interviewing. The current paper addresses this limitation by describing the main factors preventing the adoption of ‘best‐practice’ interview guidelines. A description of these barriers (and the literature that supports them) forms the basis for the review component of this paper as well as the subsequent recommendations for change.

Keywords:

• investigative interviewing
• forensic interviewing
• best‐practice guidelines
• review
• expertise
• child witnesses

Acknowledgements

The majority of the research cited in this paper by Powell and colleagues was supported by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP0347170), co‐funded by the Victoria and New South Wales police services.