Child Victim's and Witnesses

Question 1

What were the 4 members of the Sterling family (plus 5 others) charged with during the Martensville Saskatchewan case?

Answer 1

190 counts of physical and sexual abuse against two dozen children at their babysitting service.

Question 2

Why were authorities suspicious of the daycare in the first place?

Answer 2

After reports of diaper rash they began interviewing the children.

Question 3

What abuse allegations were told during the Martensville interviews?

Answer 3

Children being restrained in cages, forced to drink urine and consume feces, intestines stuffed in a child’s ear, witnessing murder and others having acid poured on their faces.

Question 4

What ended up happening in the Martensville case and why?

Answer 4

All charges were dismissed except for one- as the case was assigned to an inexperienced investigator, evidence was gathered after testimonies, confirmation biases as well as highly suggestive interrogative techniques.

Question 5

What was the McMartin case in California?

Answer 5

A mother of a 2 and a half year old child called the authorities with abuse claims at a daycare- authorities then sent a letter to 200 parents naming Ray Buckey as a prime suspect.

Question 6

What was the consequence of sending these letters?

Answer 6

200 parents couldn’t keep quiet and sent their children for assessments- suggestive questioning lead to 350 kids being judged as abused. Ended up being the longest trial in US history (7 years).

Question 7

What are the 6 issues discussed when interviewing children based on the McMartin trial?

Answer 7

1) Use of suggestive questions
2) Implication of confirmation by others
3) Use of positive consequences
4) Use of negative consequences
5) Repetitious questioning
6) Inviting speculation

Question 8

What are suggestive questions?

Answer 8

Questions that imply an answer or that bring up information not mentioned by the child.

Question 9

What is implication of confirmation by others?

Answer 9

Indicating that another child has already provided information about the topic at hand, which can create conformity issues.

Question 10

Why do children have a problem with repetitious questioning?

Answer 10

Children are more prone to changing their answer as they will assume their initial answer was wrong.

Question 11

Why is inviting speculation a problem when interviewing children?

Answer 11

When asking a child to pretend or figure something out, it may provide an escape hatch by allowing children to comply with the investigator while not feeling that they are telling a lie.

Question 12

What was Leichtman and Ceci’s study on questioning children?

Answer 12

4 conditions, 3-6 year old participants.
Control: given no pre-event info, but were exposed to the event (Sam being clumsy). Questioned 4 weeks later in a neutral manner.
Stereotype: Given information about the event (Sam Stone is kind but clumsy)- interviewed a number of different times in a neutral manner.
Suggestion: No pre-event info, suggestive questions 4 weeks later implying clumsiness or recklessness
Stereotype + Suggestion- pre -event information and post-event suggestions.

Question 13

What were the results of Leichtman and Ceci’s study?

Answer 13

Control: Gave accurate reports
Stereotype: Gave a modest number of false reports
Suggestion: substantial number of false reports
Stereotype + Suggestion: very high levels of false reports (that Sam purposefully damaged things)

Question 14

What was the case of Texas v Macias?

Answer 14

Chid said he saw Macias washing blood off his hands after he had killed someone- Macias spent 10 years in jail- however evidence found he was out of town and other people in the car were not interviewed. The child also could not have seen him washing his hands from his viewpoint and may have also seen him with red clay dust. Suggestive interviewing as well as a jailhouse snitch implicated Macias.

Question 15

What has research on childrens suggestibility concluded?

Answer 15

1) Children are more susceptible to suggestion than adults, but are not as suggestible as many adults believe them to be, especially when questioned about salient life events.
2) Qualities that lead to suggestibility in adults also lead to increased suggestibility in children.

Question 16

What is the most commonly used interview technique for children in Canada?

Answer 16

Step-wise interview- used for cases of sexual assault when a child is the main witness.

Question 17

What is the general process of a step-wise interview?

Answer 17

Interview is conducted in a series of steps beginning with the least suggestive and leading questioning and then moving onto more specific questions as necessary.

Question 18

What are the 9 steps in a stepwise interview?

Answer 18

1) Rapport building
2) Recall of two nonabusive events
3) Explanation of truth
4) Introduction of critical topic
5) Free narrative
6) General questions
7) specific questions (if necessary)
8) Interview aids (if necessary)
9) Conclude

Question 19

What is the process of explaining the truth to a child?

Answer 19

General description of what truth means as well as having the child promise to tell the truth- the goal is to minimize any negative impacts on the child as well as maintaining the integrity of the process.

Question 20

How do you introduce the critical topic?

Answer 20

Be as open ended as possible “do you know why you’re talking to me today”

Question 21

What is the idea of a free narrative?

Answer 21

In your own words, tell me what happened- be aware of suggestibility as well as the cognitive complexity of the child- gather information from caregivers to see how much information they usually recall.

Question 22

What happens during the general questioning phase of a step-wise interview?

Answer 22

Follow-up to the child’s narrative of what happened in a language they understand (drawings dollhouse, sketch)- also need a sense of the nature of the offenders.

Question 23

Does the stepwise interview procedure work?

Answer 23

Very little research has been conducted, but preliminary data suggests that the procedure is better than standard interviews and comparable to others that have been developed.

Question 24

What is narrative elaboration?

Answer 24

The child is given a set of cards with visual cues (participants, setting, action, affective state) to help them remember to report everything they know. The children practice with the cards before being asked about the critical event. First asked to give a free narrative, then shown the cards and are asked if they can remember anything else.

Question 25

Does narrative elaboration work?

Answer 25

In the initial testing procedure, children in the narrative condition demonstrated a 53% improvement in spontaneous recall over the control without compromising accuracy.

Question 26

What is Criteria-Based Content Analysis?

Answer 26

Developed as a clinical tool in Germany to distinguish between children’s truthful and fabricated allegations. Part of a large procedure known as the Statement Validity Assessment.

Question 27

What are the 5 essential elements in Criteria Based Content Analysis?

Answer 27

1) Coherence: does the statement make logical sense?
2) Spontanous Reproduction- does the child’s account seem rigid and rehearsed or reasonably natural?
3) Sufficient detail: Does the child give as much detail in discussing abusive events as they do with other incidents?
4) Contextual embedding: Are events placed in a time and location or connected with other daily activities?
5) Descriptions of interactions: Is there an account of interactions with other person’s present during the event?

Question 28

What do natural accounts for kids look like?

Answer 28

Will often go back and forth as they remember details.

Question 29

What are the 9 other criteria in Criteria based content analysis?

Answer 29

6) Reproduction of conversation
7) Unexpected complications during incident
8) Unusual details
9) Peripheral details
10) Accurate reported details misunderstood
11) related external associations
12) Accounts of subjective mental state
13 )Attribution of perpetrators mental state
14) Spontanous corrections
15) admitting lack of memory
16) Raising doubts about one’s own testimony
17) Self-depreciation
18) Pardoning the perpetrator
19) Details characteristic of the act.

Question 30

What are the 3 parts of the SVA? (statement validity assessment)

Answer 30

1) Structured interview with the child witness- extensive interview without leading questions, designed to create rapport and assess the child’s behavioural, cognitive, and social skills.
2) CBCA
3) Application of statement validity checklist which assesses 4 general categories of information

Question 31

What are the 4 general categories on the statement validity assessment?

Answer 31

1) psychological characteristics of the child (language and knowledge, affect during the interview, suggestibility)
2) Characteristics of the interview (how procedures may have affected statements)
3) Motivational factors- for reporting as well as influence by others
4) Investigative questions: lack of realism, inconsistent statements, contradictory evidence- are the child’s claims backed up by physical evidence?

Question 32

How much empirical support has the SVA procedure received?

Answer 32

Some, but has also been shown that knowledge of the criteria can help liars appear honest.

Question 33

What were anatomically correct dolls used for?

Answer 33

Introduced in the 70s, they were believed to help children reveal aspects of abuse they wouldn’t express verbally. It was also believed that children who are sexually abused will play inappropriately with the doll

Question 34

What is the empirical data surrounding anatomically correct dolls?

Answer 34

Doll play has been shown to differ with sexully abused children commenting on and demonstrating more sexual acts. Other research also shows children were more likely to later disclose touching when dolls were used rather than with free-response.

Question 35

What is the problem with anatomically correct dolls?

Answer 35

Some children who have not been touched will claim they were. Children are also no more accurate with the dolls than if they demo on their own bodies.

Question 36

What are the 4 guidelines for use of anatomically correct dolls?

Answer 36

1) Dolls should not be used to make an initial diagnosis
2) Mental health professionals should be trained on proper interview techniques and limitations of the procedure beforehand
3) Investigators should be aware of interpersonal factors affecting responses
4) The procedure should be videotapes it can be assessed for suggestive procedures.

Question 37

What are sand trays used for?

Answer 37

Children are shown a collection of miniature objects represent things in their lives- meant to create scene that represents their life or thoughts and worries. The therapist or interviewer then talks to the child about their scene using carefully chosen questions and prompts.

Question 38

How do kids do when recalling descriptors of people?

Answer 38

Younger children tend to recall fewer descriptors overall- the one’s they are good at tend to be similar to the one’s adults are good at.

Question 39

What types of descriptors do children have trouble recalling moreso than adults?

Answer 39

Height, weight, and age estimates

Question 40

How is children’s recognition compared to adults?

Answer 40

Children as young as 5 have no problem identifying the culprit when the culprit is in the lineup (comparable to adults).

Question 41

Where does the problem with recognition arise with children?

Answer 41

When the culprit is not in the lineup- children as old as 14 are significantly more likely to identify an innocent person than adults.

Question 42

What is the problem with sequential lineups with children?

Answer 42

They are more likely to guess- choosing the first picture they see and then every subsequent picture (kids are compelled to choose).

Question 43

What is the elimination lineup?

Answer 43

Child is presented with all lineup photos and asked to choose the person who looks most like the culprit (relative judgement). Child is then asked to compare his/her memory of the culprit with the picture that is left and decide if that is the culprit (absolute judgement).

Question 44

What has the elimination lineup been shown to do?

Answer 44

Increase children’s correct rejection rates (target absent) to adult levels with simultaneous lineup.

Question 45

What is the mystery man procedure?

Answer 45

Gives kids the ability to choose the mystery person, rather than choosing someone solely because they feel they have to.

Question 46

What has the mystery man procedure been shown to do?

Answer 46

Reduces erroneous identifications.

Question 47

What kinds of accommodations can be given to kids testifying in court?

Answer 47

Can testify behind a screen if necessary to obtain the full and candid account of the act, can also testify over closed-circuit TV, can also use dolls, drawings, and videotapes of the original interview.

Question 48

How do we assess a child’s competency to provide testimony?

Answer 48

Consider things in a developmental context, ability to recall events, ability to understand and contextualize events, ability to know the difference between their own experience and thoughts from someone else’s, what truth telling and lying means to them in terms of their moral development.

Question 49

Is a child’s ability to correctly answer cognitive and moral questions about truth and lying related to them telling the truth?

Answer 49

No

Question 50

What increases truth telling with children?

Answer 50

Promising to tell the truth

Question 51

What things changed with the Canadian Evidence act after these findings about children’s truthfulness?

Answer 51

Presumption of capacity to testify- able to understand and respond to questions
Child must promise to tell the truth but no questions about understanding of promise or truth.