title: Interviews of Children in a Portuguese Special Judicial Procedure.
abstract: Since 2007, alleged victims of child sexual abuse in Portugal have provided evidence in a mandatory "Declarações para Memória Futura" (DMF; English transl. 'Statement for future use') proceeding. In order to protect children from having to testify in court, interviews conducted at the DMF can be used later as trial evidence because the hearings are conducted by judges. The present study examined 137 interviews with 3- to 17-year-olds conducted in several Portuguese criminal courts. Detailed examination of interview transcripts showed that 69% of all questions asked were option-posing questions, 16% were directive questions, 11% were suggestive questions, and only 3% were open-ended prompts. The vast majority of details provided by children were thus obtained using the risky recognition-based prompts (i.e., option posing and suggestive questions) associated with the risks of contaminating and limiting children's informativeness, both potential threats to the credibility of their testimony. There is an urgent need to address this issue and consider the implementation of a scientifically validated structured interview protocol in Portugal. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
authors.forename: Carlos Eduardo
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Peixoto
authors.affiliation: Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, I. P. - Northern Branch, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Raquel Veludo
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.affiliation: Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, I. P. - Northern Branch, Porto, Portugal.|University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Telma Sousa
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.affiliation: Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, I. P. - Northern Branch, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Júlia Marina
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Royal Holloway University of London, London, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: La Rooy
authors.affiliation: Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, I. P. - Northern Branch, Porto, Portugal.|Centre for Studies in Human Development (CEDH), Faculdade de Educação e Psicologia - Universidade Católica Portuguesa (FEP-UCP), Porto, Portugal.|Biomedical Abel Salazar Institute - University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Catarina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Portugal.|Institute of Research and Advanced Training in Health Sciences and Technologies (IINFACTS), Gandra, Portugal.|Department of Sciences, University Institute of Health Sciences (IUCS-CESPU), Gandra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Magalhães
authors.affiliation: University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Michael E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Lamb
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003416:Criminal Law / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000592:standards*