19 research outputs found
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Facilitating the Expression of Emotions by Alleged Victims of Child Abuse During Investigative Interviews Using the Revised NICHD Protocol.
Children's testimony is often critical to the initiation of legal proceedings in abuse cases. In forensic interviews, the expression of emotions can powerfully enhance both the quality of children's statements and perceptions that their statements are coherent and credible. However, children rarely express their emotions when reporting abusive events. The Revised The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Protocol (RP) was designed to emphasize socioemotional communication during forensic interviews and thus should be associated with more extensive and diverse expressions of emotions by alleged victims of abuse. The present study focused on forensic interviews (178 using the Revised and 100 using the Standard NICHD Protocol) with victims of physical child abuse whose allegations were corroborated using independent evidence. Detailed content coding showed that the RP was associated with the expression of more different emotions, more expression of abuse-related emotions, and more expression of emotions related to the interview context. Emotional expressiveness was associated with increased informativeness, and the association between the type of protocol and informativeness was fully mediated by emotional expressiveness. These results suggest that the Revised Protocol facilitates the expression of emotions by alleged victims of abuse in a way that enhances the value of children's testimony in multiple ways.Nuffield and Jacobs Foundation
Non-verbal behavior of children who disclose or do not disclose child abuse in investigative interviews
Objective: The study focused on childrenās nonverbal behavior in investigative interviews
exploring suspicions of child abuse. The key aims were to determine whether non-verbal
behavior in the pre-substantive phases of the interview predicted whether or not children
would disclose the alleged abuse later in the interview and to identify differences in the
nonverbal behaviors of disclosing and non-disclosing children.
Method: We studied DVD-recorded interviews of 40 alleged victims of child abuse. In all
cases, there was external evidence strongly suggesting that abuse had occurred. However,
half of the children disclosed abuse when interviewed using the NICHD Investigative Interview
Protocol, whereas the other half did not. Two raters, unaware whether or not the
children disclosed, independently coded the videotapes for nonverbal indices of positive
and negative emotions, stress, and physical disengagement in each 15-second unit of the
introductory, rapport building, and substantive interview phases.
Results: Indicators of stress and physical disengagement increased as the interviews
progressed while indices of positive emotions decreased. Non-disclosers showed proportionately
more physical disengagement than disclosers in both the introductory and
substantive phases.
Conclusions: Awareness of non-verbal behavior may help investigators identify reluctant
children early in forensic interviews.
Practice implications: There is substantial evidence that, when questioned by investigators,
many children do not disclose that they have been abused. The early detection of
reluctance to disclose may allow interviewers to alter their behavior, helping the children
overcome their reluctance by providing non-suggestive support before the possibility
of abuse is discussed. Of course, nonverbal behavior alone should not be used to assess
children in investigative interviews. However, nonverbal cues may nonetheless provide
additional information to interviewers and assist them in identifying reluctant children
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Is interviewer support associated with the reduced reluctance and enhanced informativeness of alleged child abuse victims?
Child maltreatment victims are often reluctant to report abuse when formally interviewed. Evidence-based guidelines like the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Standard Investigative Interview Protocol do not adequately address such reluctance because they are focused on cognitive rather than socio-emotional strategies. The present study was designed to determine whether the Revised NICHD Protocol, which emphasizes supportive interviewing more than the Standard Protocol does, might predict increases in the overall informativeness and reductions in the reluctance of alleged victims. A total of 254 interviews, 166 using the Revised Protocol and 88 using the Standard Protocol, were conducted with 4.06- to 13.98-year-old children (M = 9.20, SD = 2.49) who disclosed multiple incidents of physical abuse by their parents and were thus expected to be more reluctant than victims of extrafamilial abuse. We coded indices of interviewer support and question types, childrenās reluctance, and informativeness in each utterance during the substantive phases of the interviews. The Revised Protocol was associated with better interviewer support and questioning as well as reduced reluctance and increased informativeness on the part of the children. These findings document the value of training interviewers to attend to the socio-emotional needs of suspected abuse victims during investigative interviews.Nuffield and Jacobs Foundations, Haruv Institut
Language of lies:Urgent issues and prospects in verbal lie detection research
Since its introduction into the field of deception detection, the verbal channel has become a rapidly growing area of research. The basic assumption is that liars differ from truth tellers in their verbal behaviour, making it possible to classify them by inspecting their verbal accounts. However, as noted in conferences and in private communication between researchers, the field of verbal lie detection faces several challenges that merit focused attention. The first author therefore proposed a workshop with the mission of promoting solutions for urgent issues in the field. Nine researchers and three practitioners with experience in credibility assessments gathered for 3 days of discussion at BarāIlan University (Israel) in the first international verbal lie detection workshop. The primary session of the workshop took place the morning of the first day. In this session, each of the participants had up to 10 min to deliver a brief message, using just one slide. Researchers were asked to answer the question: āIn your view, what is the most urgent, unsolved question/issue in verbal lie detection?ā Similarly, practitioners were asked: āAs a practitioner, what question/issue do you wish verbal lie detection research would address?ā The issues raised served as the basis for the discussions that were held throughout the workshop. The current paper first presents the urgent, unsolved issues raised by the workshop group members in the main session, followed by a message to researchers in the field, designed to deliver the insights, decisions, and conclusions resulting from the discussions
The NICHD protocol:a review of an internationally-used evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers
PurposeThis article reviews an evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers called the NICHD Protocol, with a specific focus on how the Protocol is being adapted in various countries.Design/methodology/approachWe include international contributions from experienced trainers, practitioners, and scientists, who are already using the Protocol or whose national or regional procedures have been directly influenced by the NICHD Protocol research (Canada, Finland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, Portugal, Scotland, and United States). Throughout the review, these experts comment on: How and when the Protocol was adopted in their country; who uses it; training procedures; challenges to implementation and translation; and other pertinent aspects. We aim to further promote good interviewing practice by sharing the experiences of these international experts.FindingsThe NICHD Protocol can be easily incorporated into existing training programs worldwide and is available for free. It was originally developed in English and Hebrew and is available in several other languages.Originality/valueThis article reviews an evidence-based tool for training child forensic interviewers called the NICHD Protocol. It has been extensively studied and reviewed over the past 20 years. This article is unique in the it is the first to bring together practitioners who are actually responsible for training forensic interviewers and conducting forensic interviews from all around the world
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Interviewing young offenders about child-on-child sexual abuse.
This study compared two versions of the NICHD Protocol for interviewing young suspected sexual offenders: the Revised Suspect Protocol (RSP) and the Standard Suspect Protocol (SSP). The RSP incorporated relevant evidence-based practices informed by research on the value of (a) effectively explaining the suspects' rights, (b) rapport building and support, and (c) appropriate questioning strategies. Interviewers using the RSP communicated the children's rights more effectively (reading them more often, checking, verifying, and correcting understanding) and provided more support. In the substantive phase, they remained supportive while recall prompts dominated the questioning. Compared to children in the SSP group, children in the RSP condition understood their rights better, were more responsive during rapport-building, and reacted to interviewer support in the substantive phase with increased responsiveness, which in turn, predicted reduced reluctance, increased emotional expression, and greater informativeness. They were also more likely to make full rather than partial confessions than children in the SSP group. Full confessions were positively predicted by the appropriate communication of legal rights, interviewer support, and reliance on open-ended prompts, thereby confirming the superiority of the RSP relative to the SSP.Nuffield and Jacobs Foundation
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Emotional valence and the types of information provided by children in forensic interviews.
BACKGROUND: Emotions can powerfully affect memory retrieval although this effect has seldom been studied in everyday contexts. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the association between children's verbal emotional expressions and the type of information reported during forensic interviews. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: The sample included 198 interviews with 4- to 14-year-old (MĀ =Ā 9.36, SDĀ =Ā 2.37) alleged victims of repeated physical abuse perpetrated by family members conducted using the Revised NICHD Protocol which emphasizes a supportive interviewing style. METHODS: Interview videos were transcribed and each conversational turn was coded to reflect the amount and type of children's verbal emotional expressions, forensic information provided, interviewers' demeanor, and type of question asked. RESULTS: The verbal expression of negative emotions was positively associated with the production of more central details (Ī²Ā =Ā 0.29, SEĀ =Ā 0.05, pĀ <Ā 0.001) and peripheral details (Ī²Ā =Ā 0.66, SEĀ =Ā 0.07, pĀ <Ā 0.001), while the verbal expression of positive emotions was correlated with peripheral details (Ī²Ā =Ā 0.29, SEĀ =Ā 0.15, pĀ =Ā 0.047). The verbal expression of negative emotions was associated with the production of more specific details (Ī²Ā =Ā 0.73, SEĀ =Ā 0.06, pĀ <Ā 0.001]) and less generic information (Ī²Ā =Ā -0.39, SEĀ =Ā 0.18, pĀ =Ā 0.029) whereas positive emotions were associated only with increased specific information (Ī²Ā =Ā 0.28, SEĀ =Ā 0.12, pĀ =Ā 0.025). CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight how emotional expression, especially of negative emotions, enhances the quantity and quality of children's reports in forensic contexts.Nuffield Foundation; Jacobs Foundatio
When Is a Childās Forensic Statement Deemed Credible? A Comparison of Physical and Sexual Abuse Cases
Nonverbal Emotions While Disclosing Child Abuse: The Role of Interviewer Support.
Peer reviewed: TrueFunder: Jacobs Foundation; FundRef: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100003986Funder: Nuffield Foundation; FundRef: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000279Statements by alleged victims are important when child abuse is prosecuted; triers-of-fact often attend to nonverbal emotional expressions when evaluating those statements. This study examined the associations among interviewer supportiveness, children's nonverbal emotions, and informativeness during 100 forensic interviews with alleged victims of child abuse. Raters coded the silent videotapes for children's nonverbal emotional expressions while other raters coded the transcripts for interviewer support, children's verbal emotions, and informativeness. Results showed that children's nonverbal signals were more common than and preceded the verbal signs. Interviewer support was associated with children's expressivity. When children expressed more nonverbal emotions, they were more responsive during the pre-substantive phases and more informative about the abuse. Nonverbal emotions partially mediated the association between support and informativeness. The findings underline the value of nonverbal emotional expression during forensic interviews and demonstrate how the interviewers' supportive demeanor can facilitate children's emotional displays and increase informativeness
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The dynamics of two-session interviews with suspected victims of abuse who are reluctant to make allegations.
Supportive forensic interviews conducted in accordance with the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Revised Protocol (RP) help many alleged victims describe abusive experiences. When children remain reluctant to make allegations, the RP guides interviewers to (a) focus on rapport building and nonsuggestive support in a first interview, and (b) plan a second interview to allow continued rapport building before exploring for possible abuse. We explored the dynamics of such two-session RP interviews. Of 204 children who remained reluctant in an initial interview, we focused on 104 who made allegations when re-interviewed a few days later. A structural equation model revealed that interviewer support during the first session predicted children's cooperation during the rapport-building phase of the second session, which, in turn, predicted more spontaneous allegations, which were associated with the interviewers' enhanced use of open-ended questions. Together, these factors mediated the effects of support on children's free recall of forensically important information. This highlighted the importance of emphasizing rapport with reluctant children, confirming that some children may need more time to build rapport even with supportive interviewers.Jacobs Foundation, Nuffield Foundation, Haruv Institut