Interviewing a Child Witness:
When is it appropriate and how
to reduce the psychological
impact and increase reliability
Judicial College 2013 Domestic Relations
Seminar
August 8, 2013
Presenter
Julie Corona Ruel, M.Ed., LPC, NCC
2901 Ridgelake Drive
Suite 206
Metairie, Louisiana 70002
504-339-3978
ruelcounseling@gmail.com
What does it mean to have a
‘voice’?
A voice is the sense of agency in all of us, that makes us
confident that we will be heard, that we can impact our
own environment.
We should assume that a child’s voice, what a child has to say
about their world, is just as important as what we have to
say about it.
Values of Judicial interview of the
child
 Provides court with a first-hand understanding of the
child’s experiences
 Provides a context within which to consider the
information provided by parents and others regarding the
child’s best interest
 Because the child’s future is profoundly impacted by a
custody decision, the child should have a voice in the
determination of a custody schedule
Arguments against the Judicial
interview of the child
 Child potentially further traumatized by his participation
in parents’ conflict
 Child feels forced to ‘choose’ a parent, potentially further
jeopardizing the future parent/child relationship
 Child is not competent or qualified to provide valid or
reliable information
Judicial interview of the childthoughts to consider
 what factors do judges consider when deciding whether to
interview a child or not
 what concerns do judges have regarding interviewing
children
 whether judicial interviews are helpful or not
OPEN DISCUSSION
What is the judge’s priority in the
interview?
Judicial survey of state court judges in Arizona found
philosophically different viewpoints between judges
• For some judges, the goal of procedural fairness to the
litigants seemed to assume priority
• For others the paramount goal was to facilitate the child’s
meaningful and confidential participation in the litigation
process
Purposes for the child interview
 Fact finding vs. gathering information
 Allow the child to become part of the process
 Allow the child to meet the decision maker and
understand the process
What will they remember?
People may not remember exactly
what you did, or what you said,
but they will always remember
how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou
Ages and Stages
 Profound differences in motivations and responsiveness to
judicial interviews based on stage of development
 The age of the child effects both the type of questions that
are appropriate as well as how the questions should be
worded
 There are significant differences from age to age regarding
the ability to comprehend concepts
 Differences are also found in the linguistic content and
quality of answers provided
Preschool and Early Childhood
 Use and interpret language literally
 Have difficulty collecting ideas into categories
 Use words for time, distance, size, etc. long before they
understand the meaning
 May respond to questions even if they have no knowledge
 Believe in general that adults speak the truth, are sincere, and
would not trick them
 Do not understand that they do not understand something
Preschool and Early Childhood
 Black and white thinking
 Fantastic thinking
 Tend to want to care take of perceived victim
 Worry about personal survival (anxiety about food,
shelter, safety)
 Prone to self blame and feelings of responsibility
School Age (7-10)
 Still may believe all adults speak the truth
 Continued difficulty with abstract concepts (love, respect,
affection)
 Unequipped to deal with insincerity (sarcasm, irony, etc)?
 Struggle with processing complex questions
School age (7-10)
 Empathy is emerging
 Moral development – prone to intense condemnation
 Aware of own rejection and vulnerability
 Community relationships are becoming important-
becomes a significant motivator
Adolescents (ages 11-17)
 May or may not have developed adult narrative style
 Some difficulty with complex negation
 Confused by complex ambiguity- idioms, jokes, etc.
 Reluctant to ask for clarification or state that they don’t
understand
Adolescents (ages 11-17)
 It’s all about me!!!!
 Psychological emancipation – solidification of personal
identity
 Possible de-idealization of one or both parents
 Child will place peer needs over family
 Listen for extremes
Discussion
 How does the developmental stage of the child effect interview
style and content?
 In what ways can developmental stages be taken into
consideration when structuring an interview?
 How does the developmental stage of the child effect how
interview responses should be considered?
 What are the differences between the motivations of early
childhood, school age and adolescent children?
OPEN DISCUSSION
Interviewing Techniques
 Explain purpose of meeting
 Opportunity for child to ask questions
 Introductory background questions
 Keep questions open ended & vocabulary simple
 Avoid asking directly for preference,
 ask child to describe homes, relationships
 If child wants to state a preference, the child will do so
in response to a very-opened question like:
“Is there anything else you would like to tell me?”
Opening the Interview
 Rapport development
- Improves the child comfort in the setting
- -Questions about family, friends, activities, etc. without an
agenda- only to ease anxiety
 * Simple explanation of the purpose of the interview
- i.e. “to hear what you have to say”
- “to help me improve the situation for your family”
• Encourage questions about the process and purpose of
interview and the role of a judge
Opening the interviewconsiderations
 Promote the child’s feeling of having a say so or a ‘voice’ in
the matter
 Avoid the child feeling the pressure of ‘choosing’ between
parents
 Avoid the child feeling omnipotent- as if his/her ideas will
be the deciding factors in the matter
Confidentiality
 Allow the child to know who will have access to
information
 Complete disclosure leads to feelings of understanding
and avoidance of undue anxiety
Open Ended Questions
 Start with WHAT and WHEN
 Cannot be answered with one word
 Avoid WHY
 Formulation is harder than it sounds
 Develop a script
 Pre-formulation of questions based on age
Questions
 Develop discrepancy
 Best – worst
 Like most- like least
 Measurement
 Scale of one to ten
 Miracle questions
 Three wishes
 If you woke up tomorrow and everything was ok…..
Ascertaining facts
 Open ended questions
 Problem- children have trouble with free recall
 Children under 12 require cues to stimulate recall
 Specific questions
 Can be leading and influence future answers
 The younger the child- the greater the potential for leading
effect
 In empirical studies, there is no significant difference in the
suggestibility between adults and children OVER 10 with
regard to leading questions
Thoughts to consider
 Am I going too fast?
 Am I hearing this child?
 Am I sacrificing this child’s interests for some other
objective (the rights of the litigants)?
 Is my attention on the child’s words, behaviors and
emotions?
 Am I failing to reassure the child to remove blocks to
communication?
Assessing reliability
 Coaching
 Words ‘mirror’ words or phrases used by parent or other
participating party
 Knowledge of the process not appropriate for age
 Combat effects of coaching through expansion
 Tell me more about that
 Ask expansion questions specific to topic
Special Considerations
 Domestic Violence
 Physical child abuse
 Sexual abuse
 Extreme child alienation
Interviewing children- pitfalls
 Asking manipulative questions
 Isn’t it true…?
 Didn’t you say…?
 Complex questions
 Abstract or low frequency words
 Two or more questions imbedded into one
 Legalese
Interviewing children- pitfalls
 Asking complex, multipart questions
 Asking if the child understands you
 Asking how and why questions
 Asking truth/lie questions
 Asking about relative concepts: relationship, time,
distance, kinship, etc.
OPEN DISCUSSION
 What challenges have you encountered in interviewing
children?
 Based on the material presented, what challenges do you
foresee in interviewing children?
Bibliography
 Cronch, Linda E., Viljoen, J., Hansen, D. (2006) Forensic interviewing in
child sexual abuse cases: Current techniques and future directions.
University of Nebraska, Faculty publications.
 Goldberg, Dan (2004) Judicial Interviews in Children: Time to pause and
reflect. http://www.cclaabcc.ca/uploadedFiles/Practice_Portals/Family/Local_Practice_Informatio
n/Judicial%20Interviews%20Article%20No%202.pdf
 Graffen-Walker, A (1999) Handbook on Questioning Children, a Linguistic
Perspective .Washington, D.C. ABA Center on Children and the Law.
 Rogers, Lisa Carroll (1987) Child Custody: The judicial interview of the
child. Louisiana Law Review, Developments in the Law 1985-1986.
Volume 87, Part 3