COLLABORATIVE PROPOSAL: Legal Questioning of Adolescent Victims

关于儿童记忆和易受暗示问题的广泛和极具影响力的研究机构已就如何从遭受性虐待的儿童受害者那里获得准确证词制定了明确的指导方针，与此相反，人们对如何询问青少年受害者知之甚少，尽管他们在遭受一系列性虐待经历的受害者中占很大比例，并受到执法和法律当局的询问。对于被性交易的青少年来说，缺乏指导方针更加令人震惊，他们往往被认定为犯罪嫌疑人，并受到警方的讯问，而不是受过训练的法医专家。如何接近和采访青少年受害者，特别是那些被贩运的青少年受害者，从未得到全面研究。然而，包括采访者和警察在内的专业人员必须以一种方式询问这些青少年，使受害者清楚地披露他们的经历，以便进行干预，确保他们得到保护，并起诉犯下这些令人发指的罪行的人。这项研究将系统地评估执法人员和法律专业人员对涉嫌青少年受害者的实际访谈，包括那些被贩运的青少年。它将确定使用何种询问方式，何种方式在询问虐待和贩运细节方面或多或少有效，以及这些问题和受害者的答复如何与针对贩运者的刑事案件的结果相关联。这项研究的结果将为高度脆弱的受害者群体的信息披露模式的科学模型提供信息。研究结果还将影响政策和实践，为对青少年性虐待受害者，特别是被贩运的青少年性虐待受害者进行有效询问的方法提供重要见解，从而为这些方法的培训协议和实践和政策的长期改进奠定基础。这项研究将特别涉及审查和编码340名青少年受害者的访谈记录，其中一半是贩运受害者，一半是经历过其他形式性虐待的青少年。对于进入审判阶段的案件，还将收集和编码受害者的证词笔录、案件细节和案件结果数据。统计分析将侧重于所问问题的类型和语气（例如，语气是支持性的还是审问性的），以及受害者回答的特征，如他们是否披露虐待，他们提供的细节数量，他们报告的内容，以及他们逃避的程度。有了这个广泛的编码系统，问题和反应类别之间的联系将被评估，以确定哪种问题在引出受害者特定类型的反应方面更有效，哪种更无效，以及这些问题和反应如何直接和互动地与案件结果相关。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In contrast to the expansive and highly influential body of research on children's memory and suggestibility, which has led to clear guidelines about how to elicit accurate testimony from child victims of sexual abuse, little is known about how to question adolescent victims, even though they represent a large proportion of victims who have suffered a range of sexual abuse experiences and are questioned by law enforcement and legal authorities. The lack of guidelines is even more striking for sexually trafficked adolescents, who are often identified as criminal suspects and questioned by police, not trained forensic specialists. How to approach and interview adolescent victims, particularly those who have been trafficked, has never been comprehensively examined. Yet professionals, including interviewers and police, must question these adolescents in a way that elicits clear disclosures from the victims about their experiences in order to intervene, ensure their protection, and prosecute those who commit these heinous crimes. This study will systematically evaluate actual interviews by law enforcement and legal professionals with suspected adolescent victims, including those who have been trafficked. It will determine what types of questioning approaches are used, what approaches are more or less effective at eliciting abuse and trafficking details, and how the questions and victims' responses relate to the outcomes of criminal cases against traffickers. The results of the research will inform scientific models of disclosure patterns in highly vulnerable populations of victims. The results will also impact policy and practice by providing crucial insight into effective questioning approaches with adolescent sexual abuse victims, especially those who have been trafficked, thereby laying the foundation for training protocols on these approaches and long-lasting improvements in practice and policy. This research will specifically involve reviewing and coding 340 interview transcripts of adolescent victims, half trafficking victims and half adolescents who have experienced other forms of sexual abuse. For cases that went to trial, transcripts of the victims' testimony, case details and case outcome data will also be collected and coded. Statistical analyses will focus on the types of questions asked and the tone of the questions (for instance, whether the tone is supportive or interrogation-like), as well as characteristics of the victims' responses, such as whether they disclose abuse, the amount of detail they provide, the content of what they report, and their levels of evasiveness. With this extensive coding system, linkages between the question and response categories will be evaluated to determine what kinds of questions are more versus less effective at eliciting specific types of responses from victims and how the questions and responses, directly and interactively, relate to case outcomes.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.