Smart talk contemporary interviewing and interrogation by gosselin ch07

Interviewing Children Chapter Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-1 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Child Interview   Criminal investigators must determine what happened  Need disclosure from the child  Reliability will be an issue Social Service investigators determine if something happened which requires child protection Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-2 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Limitations on Reporting by Age  Infancy: The first two years   Early Childhood: Ages to     Rely on medical documentation Short attention span Time and space are difficult concepts Only in rare instances should the child be interviewed more than ½ hour Middle Childhood: Ages to 12     Language is well developed Play remains primary expression Emotion language possible Can distinguish fiction versus reality Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-3 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Field Assessment: a First Responder Situation  Explain the reason for the visit to the caretaker The child may need to be visually examined for bruises and marks  Secure emergency medical attention if needed  Interview the child outside of the presence of the caretaker  Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-4 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Step I: Risk Assessment    Assessing the present and future risk of harm to a child is a legal requirement in all states The standard of proof for reporting suspected abuse or neglect is mere suspicion     Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-5 Is there any reason to believe that the child has been abused, neglected, or witnessed abuse towards a parent or sibling? Has the child received a suspicious injury? Are there weapons or ammunition that are accessible to this child? Does the primary caretaker abuse alcohol or drugs? Is the child depressed or suffering from lack of medical attention? © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Step 2: Models for Evaluating Abuse  Choice of evaluation model is based on the goals of the interview Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-6    Child Interview Model Parent-Child Interaction Model Multidisciplinary Team Approach © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Child Interview Model  Child interview is central for abuse determination  Premise: children rarely make false allegations Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-7 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Parent-Child Interaction Model  Determination is based on expected behaviors between offending and non-offending parent and their offspring  Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin Should not be used for criminal complaint 7-8 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Multidisciplinary Team Approach  Input from child professionals for abuse determination  Criminal investigator must have active participation Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-9 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Step 3: Preliminary Considerations Checklist     Determine the Reason for questioning Determine the Purpose of the questioning Identify the Population Identify the Interviewer Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin     7-10 The interview reason determines its length The purpose of the interview determines the model to be used The interview population determines the limitations of the interviewee The choice of interviewer depends on the population © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Step 2: Narrative Report  This step is the most important! In the most recent version of cognitive interviewing these are the only two mnemonics used  Reconstruct the circumstances mnemonic  Be complete, report everything mnemonic Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-24 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Interviewer Guidelines for Reconstruct the Circumstances Mnemonic  Reconstruct circumstances To keep the child grounded in reality and minimize fantasy the interviewer must avoid such terms as “pretend” or “imagine.” Instead, instruct the child to “picture that time when … as if you were there right now Think about what it was like there Tell me out loud Were there any smells there? Was it dark or light? Picture any other people who were there What things were there? How were you feeling when you were there? Who else was there?” Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-25 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Interviewer Guidelines for Report Everything Mnemonic  Be complete/report everything Instruct the child to start at the beginning and tell everything that happened, from the beginning to the middle, to the end Tell everything you remember, even little parts that you don’t think are important Sometimes people leave out little things because they think little things are not important Tell me everything that happened Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-26 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Suggestions for Step      Don’t interrupt while the child is talking If needed, prompt in a neutral way, “and then what happened” Take notes sparingly; ask for clarification when the child is finished Speak slowly so the child will so also Use open-ended questions for clarification Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-27 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Step 3: Changing the Order and Perspective Mnemonic  Use memory-jogging techniques to obtain new information Change the order mnemonic  Change the perspective mnemonic  Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-28 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Memory-jogging Techniques  Backward-order recall  Alphabet search  Speech characteristics  Conversation  New perspective Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-29 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Backward-order Recall   Ask the child to recall events in backward order, from the end of the incident to the beginning Prepare the child for the backwards technique before asked by prompting the child “what happened right before that?” Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-30 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Alphabet Search  If a child believes that a name may have been mentioned during the incident, ask the child to go through the alphabet as an aid to recalling the first letter of the name Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-31 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Speech Characteristics  Probe for speech traits Did a voice remind the child of another’s?  If so, why and what was unusual about the voice?  Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-32 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Conversation   How did the child feel about what was said? Unusual words or phrases? Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-33 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 New Perspective    Use this technique only after the child seems to have exhausted his or her memory of the event Ask the child to recall the incident from the perspective of someone else present “Put yourself in the body of … and tell me what you would have seen or heard if you had been that person?” Ask the child to recount the incident from a different perspective, such as through the eyes of someone else who was present, or through the eyes of an inanimate object, such as a stuffed animal that was present Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-34 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Does the Technique Work? Tested rd th by NIJ on and Graders     Memory recall improved by 45 percent with cognitive method Older children recalled significantly more facts than the younger children 3rd graders did not make more recall errors than 6th graders When the backwards order technique was used, it elicited new information 44 percent of the time Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-35 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Positive Interviewers   Appeared to develop rapport effectively, showed interest in what the children were saying, maintained a high level of attention, and generated expanded responses through open-ended questions They produced the most information and had the highest accuracy rate of 90 percent Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-36 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Child Reporter  Accuracy Account may be incomplete  If leading questions are asked inaccurate responses may occur  Embarrassing or humiliating events may be difficult to express   Memory and fantasy Investigate for corroborating evidence  Avoid terms such as pretend or imagine  Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-37 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 The Child Victim  Use tools to assist the child in expression Crayons, drawing, or dolls  Allow the child to name and explain any drawings without prompting  Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-38 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 ... expected behaviors between offending and non-offending parent and their offspring  Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin Should not be used for criminal... difference between the truth and a lie  Don’t use “cop talk  Avoid the use of leading questions Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-18 © 2007 Pearson... protection Smart Talk: Contemporary Interviewing and Interrogation By Denise Kindschi Gosselin 7-2 © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Limitations on Reporting by Age  Infancy: