title: Interviewing youthful suspects in alleged sex crimes: a descriptive analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To introduce and evaluate a structured interview protocol designed for investigative interviews of youthful alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy-two alleged perpetrators ranging from 9 to 14 years of age (M = 12 years) were interviewed by 1 of 13 experienced youth investigators, employed by the Israeli Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, about incidents that had been reported by alleged victims. All interviews were conducted as part of the investigators' regular work and followed the structured interview guide appended to this article.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Interviewers questioned older and younger children similarly, but addressed fewer invitations, directive questions, and option-posing prompts to suspects who denied the allegations than to those who partially or fully admitted them. The total number of details provided by the suspects did not vary depending on their age or whether or not they fully or partially admitted the allegations. In both cases, more information was elicited using invitations rather than suggestive or option-posing prompts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contrary to expectations, suspects who at least partially admitted their involvement provided considerable amounts of information and were very responsive to free recall prompts, although interviewers used more risky (potentially error-inducing) prompts when interviewing suspects rather than alleged victims.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Irit
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hershkowitz
authors.forename: Dvora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Horowitz
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Lamb
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Orbach
authors.forename: Kathleen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Sternberg
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male