NCJ Number
227385
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 33 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2009 Pages: 257-268
Date Published
May 2009
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study assessed the effectiveness of the flexibly structured Investigative Interview Protocol for child sexual abuse (CSA) promoted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as used by police officers and mental health workers in Quebec (Canada).
Abstract
A French version of the NICHD Protocol was used by Quebec police officers and social workers who investigated the alleged sexual abuse of young children in this French-speaking Province of Canada. Under the Protocol, the interviewers used many more free-recall prompts (invitations) and many fewer risky option-posing and suggestive prompts than before these same interviewers had been trained to use the Protocol. Presumably because they were questioned in this way, the 3- to 13-year-old children in this study provided more information in response to open-ended prompts under the Protocol condition, thereby providing proportionally more information that was likely to be accurate compared to interview techniques used before training in the Protocol. Learning to use the NICHD Protocol required extended training and continued feedback sessions in order to maintain the high quality of interviewing required under the Protocol. A total of 83 interviews with 3- to 13-year-old alleged victims of CSA were matched with 83 interviews conducted by the same interviewers before they were trained to use the Protocol. Interviews were matched with respect to the children's ages, children-perpetrator relationships, and the types and frequency of abuse. Coders categorized each of the prompts used in order to elicit information about the abuse, and they tabulated the number of new forensically relevant details provided in each response. 5 tables and 64 references