Children's Requests for Clarification in Investigative Interviews About Suspected Sexual Abuse

Lindsay C. Malloy*, Carmit Katz, Michael E. Lamb, Allison P. Mugno

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

In investigative interviews, it is vital that children request clarification when necessary so that crucial legal decisions can take into account the most accurate and detailed information. In the present study, 91 investigative interview transcripts about suspected child sexual abuse were coded to answer these research questions: (i) How often and how do children request clarification in investigative interviews? (ii) What factors (age, alleged abuse frequency, interviewer prompt type) are associated with children's requests? and (iii) How do interviewers respond to clarification requests, and are these interventions associated with relevant responses from children? Children rarely requested clarification, although, as expected, older children made more requests. Most requests were explicit (e.g., What do you mean?) and in response to invitation prompts. Question 'rephrasing' was the most common interviewer intervention regardless of child age. Results have implications for interviewing children in various contexts and for advancing our understanding of children's cognitive and communicative development.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)323-333
Number of pages11
JournalApplied Cognitive Psychology
Volume29
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 May 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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