Collaborative Research: The Impact of Face-to-Face and Remote Interviewing

尽管广泛传播了进行法医面谈的最佳做法标准，但许多法域缺乏熟练调查涉及儿童证人的犯罪的专门知识。 确保所有司法管辖区都有训练有素的儿童访谈员的一个有效方法是进行远程（视频直播）法医访谈。 远程面谈可以缩短调查反应时间，节省调查资源，并加快案件处理。 然而，远距离面谈从儿童那里获得目击证人证据的能力尚未得到充分检验，因此肯定会引发有关儿童的挑战。的可靠性证明。 目前的项目是对远距离约谈儿童证人的有效性进行全面和有理论依据的评价。 研究结果将通过出版物和专题介绍传播给科学家和法医专业人员，从而为使用儿童远程法医访谈的政策和准则提供信息。 由于远程访谈增加了获得专门知识的机会，项目成果也将影响在非法医背景下如何通过电子手段询问儿童。 该项目将在两个研究地点为数十名学生提供研究培训，并通过与从事儿童证人工作的从业人员进行外联，提高对循证做法的认识。使用一个产生显著触摸体验的既定范例，两个地点的个体儿童（4至8岁）将被告知，男性助理在提供细菌教育计划时不能再触摸他们的皮肤。 助理将触摸每个孩子一次，并意识到一个即将发生的错误之前，他完成第二次触摸。 之后，孩子们会从他们的父母那里听到一个故事，其中包含关于经验的错误信息，包括关于非经验触摸的叙述。 在以传统的面对面或远程形式进行的访谈中，孩子们将回答有关细菌教育活动的问题，并回答一系列问题，以测试他们区分经验和建议活动的能力。 通过比较孩子的完整性和准确性？的证词跨格式，这项研究将确定是否远程访谈引出的证词，是在质量上可比的证词，由面对面的采访。 行为抑制和执行功能的措施将确定远程访谈是否有利于儿童谁是行为抑制或禁忌的典型发展的儿童谁有不良的认知控制。

Despite widespread dissemination of best-practice standards for conducting forensic interviews, many jurisdictions lack the expertise to skillfully investigate crimes involving child witnesses. An efficient way to ensure that all jurisdictions have access to highly trained child interviewers is to conduct remote (live-streaming video) forensic interviews. Remote interviewing could reduce investigative response time, spare investigative resources, and accelerate case disposition. However, the ability of remote interviewing to elicit eyewitness evidence from children has not been sufficiently tested and, therefore, will certainly prompt challenges regarding children?s testimonial reliability. The current project is a comprehensive and theoretically grounded evaluation of the effectiveness of remote interviewing of child witnesses. Results will be disseminated to scientists and forensic professionals through publications and presentations, thereby informing policies and guidelines for the use of remote forensic interviews with children. Because remote interviewing increases access to specialized expertise, project results will also impact how children are questioned by electronic means in non-forensic contexts. The project will provide research training to dozens of students at two research sites and promote greater awareness of evidence-based practice through outreach to practitioners who work with child witnesses. Using an established paradigm that produces salient touching experiences, individual children at two sites (ages 4 to 8 years) will be told that a male assistant can no longer touch their skin when he delivers a germ education program. The assistant will touch each child once and realize an impending mistake before he completes a second touch. Afterward, children will hear a story from their parents that contains misinformation about the experience, including narrative about a nonexperienced touch. During interviews conducted in traditional face-to-face or remote formats, children will answer questions about the germ education event and answer a series of questions that tests their ability to distinguish experienced from suggested events. By comparing the completeness and accuracy of children?s testimonies across formats, this study will determine whether remote interviewing elicits testimony that is comparable in quality to the testimony elicited by face-to-face interviewing. Measures of behavioral inhibition and executive function will determine whether remote interviewing is beneficial for children who are behaviorally inhibited or contraindicated for typically-developing children who have poor cognitive control.