Interviewing child witnesses: a developmental perspective.
This article reviews suggestions derived from the clinical and experimental literatures for interviewing child witnesses. We identify methods for which there is experimental support as well as key issues about which the available research offers little guidance. In a field briming with polarization rather than integration, our goal is to locate and discuss practices that overlap with both clinical consensus and a growing body of research on child development. To accomplish this goal, the first half of the article considers general guidelines for questioning children at an age-appropriate level and in a manner that minimizes the potential for distortion. The second half of the article outlines the phases of a forensic interview in a step-by-step fashion. The suggestions presented highlight a developmental perspective designed to facilitate children's memory and communicative competence, to address children's fears, and to facilitate an honest exchange of reliable information.
UCLA School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, USA.
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Saywitz
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Camparo
D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D003418:Criminology / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods