Videotaping Child Disclosure Interviews: Exploratory Study of Children's Experiences and Perceptions

ABSTRACT

The merits of videotaping child sexual abuse disclosure statements have been debated since technology provided this option. This exploratory study compares the investigatory and legal outcomes of 29 sexually abused children, whose disclosure interviews were videotaped, with a group of 61 non-videotaped sexually abused children. The results revealed that videotaped children were more likely to have fewer interviews and testify less frequently than the non-videotaped group. Offenders of videotaped sexually abused children were more likely to plead to criminal charges than offenders of the non-videotaped children. The overwhelming majority of videotaped sexually abused children (86%) indicated that videotaping was either helpful or had no effect on them.

KEYWORDS:

• Child sexual abuse
• videotaping
• interviewing
• system trauma
• community protocol
• perpetrator
• confession rates