Prosecutors' Perceptions on Questioning Children about Repeated Abuse.

Area of Science:

• Forensic Psychology
• Child Development

Background:

• Effective interviewing of children reporting repeated abuse is crucial for legal proceedings.
• Existing interview protocols may not fully address the complexities of eliciting details about recurrent events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To gather guidance from Australian prosecutors on best practices for interviewing children about repeated events.
• To identify effective techniques for helping children describe specific instances within a pattern of abuse.

Main Methods:

• Conducted two focus groups with Australian prosecutors.
• Employed thematic analysis to identify key perceptions regarding child witness interviews.
• Integrated empirical research and best practice guidelines for interview techniques.

Main Results:

• Identified three core themes in prosecutors' approaches: 1. Allowing a general account first, 2. Using this to label specific episodes, 3. Probing chronologically.
• Found high similarity in themes between the two focus groups, supporting data compilation.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest a structured approach to interviewing children about repeated abuse can enhance recall.
• Implications for developing refined interviewing protocols are discussed, considering child development and memory literature.