Biomedical subjects

P W Esplin

Publications and source records attributed to P W Esplin.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1998

Conducting investigative interviews of alleged sexual abuse victims.

OBJECTIVES: There were two aims: First, to describe the factors that influence children's competence and second, to discuss ways in which investigative interviewers can maximize the quality and quantity of information they obtain from alleged witnesses and victims. METHOD: No new research is described in this paper. Rather, the authors provide a focused review of the relevant literature designed to be maximally useful for practitioners. CONCLUSIONS: Children are often the only available sources of information about possible abusive experiences Research has shown that children can, in fact, be remarkably competent informants, although the quality and quantity of the information they provide is greatly influenced by the ways in which they are interviewed. This article describes ways in which investigative interviewers can maximize the amount and quality of information they elicit from alleged victims.

Child↗

PubMed1997

Criterion-based content analysis: a field validation study.

Transcripts of forensic interviews with 98 alleged victims of child sexual abuse were scored for the presence or absence of certain criteria believed to be more characteristic of accounts concerning experienced than nonexperienced events. Other information regarding the events was independently evaluated by individuals unfamiliar with the children's accounts. As predicted, more of the CBCA criteria were present in accounts independently rated as Likely or Very Likely to have occurred (M = 6.74) than in accounts of events deemed Unlikely or Very Unlikely to have occurred (M = 4.85). In addition, several of the criteria were helpful in distinguishing between plausible and implausible accounts. The group differences were not as dramatic as those reported in earlier studies, however, and the results suggest caution regarding forensic application of the CBCA system.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1997

Effects of introductory style on children's abilities to describe experiences of sexual abuse.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of two rapport-building techniques for eliciting information from children who made allegations of sexual abuse. METHOD: Fourteen interviewers conducted 51 investigations of child sexual abuse with children ranging from 4.5 to 12.9 years of age. In 25 of the investigations, interviewers used a script including many open-ended utterances to establish rapport, whereas in 26 of the investigations the same interviewers used a rapport-building script involving many direct questions. Both rapport-building scripts took about 7 minutes to complete. All children were asked the same open-ended question to initiate the substantive phase of the interview. RESULTS: Children who had been trained in the open-ended condition provided 2 1/2 times as many details and words in response to the first substantive utterance as did children in the direct introduction condition. Children in the open-ended condition continued to respond more informatively to open-ended utterances in the later (unscripted) portion of the interview. Two-thirds of the children mentioned the core details of the incident in their responses to the first substantive utterance and a further 20% mentioned core details more vaguely. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that children respond more informatively to an open-ended invitation when they have previously been trained to answer such questions rather than more focused questions. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of children to the goals and expectations of forensic interviewers. Structured interview protocols also increase the amount of information provided by young interviewees.

Child↗