Laura Merchant, MSW
HCSATS
lmerchan@u.washington.edu
www.hcsats.org
Counties have protocols for Child Abuse
investigations
 Where criminal prosecution is involved, each
child will receive an investigative interview
 Each county determines who gets the
investigative interview and who conducts the
interview
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Each county is required to have a protocol on
investigations of child abuse cases.
Protocols are developed with partners: Prosecutors,
LE, DSHS, medical, advocacy, schools (optional)
Protocols are maintained by each prosecuting
attorney’s office. They are required to be updated
every 2 years.
Protocols address all aspects of the investigation,
emphasizes a coordinated approach and specifies
roles of each of the key partners

Each county follows their County Protocol,
identifying expectations for interviewers
LE
 CPS workers
 Child Interview Specialists hired via CAC’s or
Prosecuting Attorney’s Offices
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Many counties conduct initial interviews with
referrals to the official investigative interview as
indicated
Preliminary Interview
 DSHS goal is to assess
risk/safety and find enough
information to refer for
Investigative Interview
 LE goal is to assess if there is
reason to suspect a crime.
 Both gather enough
information about the crime
and then refer for the
forensic/investigative
interview
Investigative Interview
 Seen as the “official”
interview for children typically
between the ages of 4 – 15)
 CPS or DSHS interview may
be considered the “official”
interview in places where they
clearly function in that
capacity
 More often, Child interview
Specialists conduct these
interviews
Interviewers are required to receive the
statewide multi-disciplinary Investigative
Interview training that includes interview skills
practice and information on developmental
disabilities
 Statewide training occurs about 5 times per year
and is 4 days long for CPS and 5 days long for
LE and child interview specialists
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Incorporates research on children’s memory and
suggestibility and on effective interview practices
Emphasis on asking open ended questions that lead to
narrative/comprehensive answers from children
Information comes primarily from the child, not the
interviewer
Ground rules are taught to increase reliability of
information
Skills practice is essential in improving practice
Child interviewers in the field are used as “facilitators”
to provide expert feedback to participants in skills
practice
Training is recommended to be taken every few
years as research informs practice and training
changes to incorporate best practice
 Peer Review is offered 10 times per year
 Booster trainings are available as “Advanced”
trainings
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Offered approximately every other month
3 hours per meeting
1 ½ hour:
 1 ½ hour:
lecture/discussion on a related topic
DVD/transcript review with
feedback
 Agencies host the meeting
 Members identify topics and sign up to present a case
for review
 Local communities sometimes also do their own peer
review
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Key Components
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Based on the NICHD protocol
 A structured forensic interview protocol that has been
shown to improve the quality and informativeness of
investigative interviews with children. Child Abuse &
Neglect, Volume 31, Issues 11-12, November-December
2007, Pages 1201-1231; Michael E. Lamb, Yael
Orbach, Irit Hershkowitz, Phillip W. Esplin and
Dvora Horowitz
NICHD is the most researched in the world with over
40,000 real-life interviews
Research Results
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NICHD guided interviews elicited more info
using open-ended prompts and less info using
option-posing and suggestive questions than did
std. interviews
In 89% of the protocol interviews, children made
their preliminary allegations in response to open-ended
prompts, compared with 36% in the standard
interviews
Professor of Law & Psychology at USC:
http://works.bepress.com/thomaslyon
1.
Introduction
2.
Ground rules/instructions
3.
Narrative practice
4.
Transition
5.
Substantive
6.
Closure
Name
 Your job
 Anyone watching or in the room
AND
 Explanation of documentation
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Increase accuracy
 Decrease inclination to guess
 Increase willingness to ask for
clarification
 Increase resistance to suggestion
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One at a time
 Simple language
 Explain and practice
 Early in the interview to set the
expectations
 Reinforce throughout
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‘Don’t guess’
 Don’t understand - ‘Tell me if you don’t
know what I mean’
 ‘Correct me if I make a mistake’
 Un-informed interviewer - ‘I wasn’t there’
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1. Promise to tell
truth
2. Competency
assessment
Reinforces seriousness
 Increases honesty (decreases lies)
 Responses can give you valuable info
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“It’s
very important that you tell me the
truth.”
“Do you promise that you will tell me
the truth?”
“Are you going to tell me any lies?”
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Decide if it is necessary to do it during the
investigative interview
If you do it, can now be done via simpler,
revised 1-card version, or through scenario
example
Prior way: To do 4 T/L examples to show
child knows the difference between a truth
and a lie and 4 morality examples
Scenario example to demonstrate child’s
understanding of concept
“Joe ate all the cookies. Joe’s Mom asked if he
ate the cookies and Joe said ‘No, the dog ate
the cookies.’ What’s Joe doing?”
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Key to reinforcing the expectation of answering
questions in a narrative manner rather than in
short answer response.
Exploring an event from beginning to end
Opportunity to practice open ended questions,
sensory focused questions, pairing forced choice or
closed questions with open ended follow ups; using
facilitators
Opportunity for child to practice answering in
more complete sentences
More important that more typical “getting
acquainted” questions where info is initially
generated from the interviewer
 More important than more traditional
“developmental assessment” questions as
narrative practice will help an interviewer assess
child’s developmental ability, take less time, and
gets them used to providing more
comprehensive information
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Separate
 Invite
 Elaborate
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Focus
Time
 Senses
 Key Facts
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Separation of incidents
Open-ended invitations
Request to elaborate
Open-ended follow-ups
Time segmentation questions
Sensory focus questions
Focused prompts, paired with
open-ended follow-ups
Clarify and elaborate
Use open ended questions
 Use funnel approach as needed
 Use pattern of questions as practiced in the
neutral narrative section of the interview
 Do not introduce body drawings or touch
continuum to as transitions to the substantive
portion of the interview
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“Tell me why you came to talk to
me.”
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OR
“Tell me why I came to talk to
you.”
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“It’s really important for me to know
why you came to talk to me.”
“What did [your mom] tell you about why I want
to talk to you today?”
 “Did anyone tell you anything about why you’re here
today?” “What did they tell you?
 “Why do you think I want to talk to you today?”
 “I understand something might have happened – tell
me what happened.”
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When there’s been a prior statement
“I heard you talked to ________ about
something that happened. Tell me what
happened.”
“I heard you saw _____ last week. Tell me
what you talked about.”
When that doesn’t work
‘Someone’s worried’
“Is [your mom] worried about something
that happened? Tell me what she’s
worried about.”
When that doesn’t work
‘Bothered You’
“I heard someone might have bothered
you. Tell me everything about that.”
When that doesn’t work
‘Something wasn’t right’
“I heard someone may have done
something that wasn’t right. Tell me
everything about that.”
Separate
 Invite
 Elaborate
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Focus
Time
 Senses
 Key Facts
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Separation of incidents
Open-ended invitations
Request to elaborate
Open-ended follow-ups
Time segmentation questions
Sensory focus questions
Focused prompts, paired with
open-ended follow-ups
Clarify and elaborate
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Clarify multiple events right away
“Did [______] happen one time or more
than one time?”
Ask for description of specific incidents –
last time, first time, another time, “the
time you remember the most”
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Use “facilitators” – “okay” /“Uh-huh”
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Don’t interrupt a narrative
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Clarify later (using notes to remind you):
“You said _____. Tell me what you mean by
_____.”
OR “
 Tell me who ____ is.”
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Use only after verbal reports have been elicited
Continue to request verbal clarification &
details in the child’s own words
Use least suggestive tools
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Summarize, clarify
Invite questions
Explaining what will happen next
Discuss “safety plan”
Thank the child
Switch to a neutral topic
Provide interviewer’s contact information
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“Who can you tell if you are worried about
something?”
“Name 3 people you could tell if something bad
happened.”
“Who can you get help from if you are hurt, or
if something bad or scary happens to you?”
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“Why do you think ____ can help you?”
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“What can ____ do to help you?”