Vulnerable Witnesses: Children - complete Flashcards
Who is a child?
Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999)
- anyone under the age of 18 at the time of the hearing
What is the purpose of a child interview?
Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings (2011) “to ascertain the witnesses account of alleged event events and any other information that would assist the investigation”
Important to obtain information that is:
Accurate
Detailed
Investigation-relevant
What are the statistics for child witnesses?
NSPCC (2014) - 73900 children under 16 report being victim of sexual abuse - 18700 offences recorded by police - 3600 defendants brought to court - 2100 guilty verdicts
Children are often sole source of information for child sexual abuse cases
Interviewing is therefore a vital step for case progression
What are the issues with child memory?
Bauer (2013) children appear to be able to remember some things from 2 months old - Rivee-Collier et al, children remember to kick when attached to a mobile
BUT
To b interviewed children must be able to verbally recall events
Increase in age results in decrease in forgetting and recall becomes more accurate
Infantile Amnesia affects early memory
What aspects of the event can affect memory?
Participation - children tend to remember events they took part in better than events that they just watched (Baker-Ward et al, 1990)
Stress (Quas et al, 1999)
Repetition - Strengthens memory, but greater reliance on script (Roberts and Powell, 2001)
What are the issues related to language within child witnesses?
Children’s vocabulary generally develops quickly between 2 and 3 (Ceci et al, 2003)
But may say words in correct context without necessarily understanding them (Lamb et al, 2002)
Temporal understanding - children need to develop knowledge of meaning of temporal words, knowledge of temporal patterns , sufficiently detailed memory of event to fit into temporal patterns
continues to develop up until 10 years
What are the issues with social context?
Not a normal child adult conversation (Lamb and Brown, 2006)
With age, children understand better what is required (Brown and Lamb, 2015)
What is the effect of suggestibility?
The extent to which a child will adjust their recall depending on external factors to their own memory
Appears to change with age, but not necessarily in a straightforward manner
What were the findings of Leichtman and Ceci (1995)?
3-6 year olds, Live event > interviewed once a week for 4 weeks
10 weeks after visit = final neutral interview for all children
4 conditions
Stereotyping - before Sam Stone visit, read stories about Sam Stone
Suggestion - Interviewed using suggestive questions
Suggestion and Stereotyping
Control - no suggestion and no stereotyping
Control least accurate, followed by stereotype then suggestion then both
Age effects - older children more resistant to suggestibility in all conditions
What are the effects of Individual Differences on child witnesses?
Bruck and Melnyk (2004) reviewed 69 studies
Cognitive - less developed language skills associated with suggestibility, positive relationship between creativity and suggestibility
Demographic - gender and socio-economic status had no relationship with suggestibility
Psycho-social - low self-concept, poor maternal attachment, poor parent-child relationship had highest correlations with suggestibility
What is Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings (ABE, 2011)?
Outlines procedures for interviewing vulnerable, intimidated and significant witnesses and victims
Covers PEACE
Includes:
Building rapport, types of questions, advice on drawings, props etc. Intermediaries and NICHD
What is the NICHD protocol?
National Institute of Child Health and Developmental Protocol (Lamb et al, 2008)
More structured and script like
Includes: Rapport-building Practice narrative Question types Dealing with questions about touch Adolescent and child versions
What is the revised NICHD Protocol?
Emphasis on social support
Encourage to address child by name, welcome them, acknowledge and explore feelings
What special measures can be found in court?
Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act (1999) Screens CCTV link Give evidence in private Remove all wigs and gowns Video record Intermediaries Communication aids
What is an open ended question?
Allow interviewee to give free recall and control over what they disclose
Used in investigative interviews
What is a specific closed question?
Asks for a more narrow account of a specific aspect of the event.
Used in investigative interviews
What is a forced-choice question?
Includes a number of choices from which the interviewee should select their answer.
Not used in investigative interviews
What is a multiple question type?
Asking a number of questions in one utterance, or for information about more than one subject.
Not used in investigative interviews
What is a leading question?
Questions that suggest one answer is correct (regardless of whether it is or not), or include information that has not previously been mentioned by the interviewee.
Not used in investigative interviews
What did Carter, Bottoms and Levine (1996) find when investigating simple vs. complex questions?
5 -7 year olds
Asked simple and complex question about crayons
Found
Complex questions led to less free recall and correct responses, more omissions
5 children didn’t understand question
What did Hardy and Van Leeuwen (2004) find when investigating direct vs indirect questions?
3-6 year olds
Found
Younger children reported less information to indirect probes than older but similar to direct probes
Younger - more accurate to indirect if practice narrative but to direct if general event is discussed
Older - More accurate to indirect if general event
What are intermediaries? (Language)
Aid communication between interviewer and interviewee i.e. language therapist
Role in process:
Pre-interview assessment
Give interviewer guidance
Sit in interview to ask if re-phrasing is needed
Are intermediaries effective?
Plotnikoff and Woolfson (2007) - positive feedback from carers
But limited evaluative research
Ridley, Van Rheede and Wilcock (2015) - presence of intermediary improved perceptions of child interview transcript for police officers and mock jurors and barristers
Henry et al (2017) - Intermediaries increased correct details without affecting error rates
What is Rapport- building? (Social context and memory)
Create comfortable interviewee-interviewer atmosphere
Role in process:
Separate section at beginning of interview
Neutral questions encourage positive discussion
How effective is rapport-building?
Enhanced vs non-enhanced rapport building
NICHD protocol
Less reluctance to disclose (Hershkowitz et al, 2013)
How effective is social support?
social context and memory
Non-verbal and verbal behaviours used throughout interview (Hershkowitz, 2011)
Children perceive interviewers who smile and don’t fidget as more friendly, less strict/ bored/ stressed (Almerigogna et al, 2008)
Waterhouse et al (2015) reduces susceptibility to misleading questions, no effect on response to leading questions , reduces anxiety
Non-supportive comments associated with less disclosure (Lewy et al, 2015)
Doesn’t seem to be used in interviews (Waterhouse et al, 2016)
How effective are single interviews?
Guidelines all say to conduct only one interview due to risks of:
Increase confirmation bias, suggestibility, anxiety and more inconsistent details.
How effective are multiple interviews?
Research suggests multiple interviews could be useful for new accurate information (La Rooy et al, 2009) - Reminisce
Increase understanding of social context
Children less anxious, no contradictions
Risk only higher if they don’t follow best practice
What are anatomically detailed dolls?
Designed to overcome language limitations by allowing children to act out events with dolls
Problems:
Dual representation- difficult in under 3yrs (DeLoache and Marzoff, 1995)
Suggestibility - False reports of genital touch (Bruck et al, 1995)
How effective is the Sketch MRC?
Wilcock, Dando and Hobson
IV - Sketch MRC, MRC and No MRC
9-10 year olds with a week delay
More correct detail in Sketch MRC and more accurate
What are the issues with these studies?
Ecological Validity of experimental studies - stress of interview, delay and event (ethical constraints)
Field studies - no way to assess accuracy, variations between interviews
What does research highlight on child cross-examinations?
Zajac, Gross and Hayne (2003) - Field study - court interactions not tailored to age
Zajac and Hayne (2003) - Lab study - misled vs control children - number o changes in testimony during CE
