Facilitating Children's Accurate Reporting of Prior Conversations about Adult Transgressions

 描述(申请人提供)：虐待儿童被广泛认为是对儿童福祉的最严重威胁之一。据估计，仅性虐待每年造成的损失就高达230亿美元。儿童性虐待案件中最重要的证据是儿童的报告，包括他们与嫌疑人的互动和他们披露的虐待行为。尽管儿童可能会与许多人谈论他们的指控(照顾者、医疗专业人员、社会工作者、律师)，但关于儿童如何记住或报告先前关于虐待的对话，人们知之甚少。这些先前的谈话成为后来评估儿童可信度的核心；事实上，有证据表明，几乎所有在刑事法庭上指证性虐待的儿童都会就他们与嫌疑人和他们向其披露性侵行为的人的对话而受到讯问。目前的研究将确定访谈方法，以促进儿童准确地报告以前的对话，同时将虚假降至最低 报告。该项目将涉及三个具体目标：1)评估儿童对先前与涉嫌违法的成年人的对话的回忆；2)评估儿童对披露对话的回忆；3)确定在引出儿童报告 交谈。这项研究将考察儿童在不同条件下回忆对话的能力，包括是否发生违规行为，被指控违规行为的煽动者鼓励儿童报告什么，以及面试者向儿童提出了什么建议。这些发现将帮助我们设计有关对话的问题，这些问题既可以用于实地研究，也可以用于调查访谈，最终也可以用于询问儿童虐待问题的专业人士。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Child maltreatment is widely recognized as one of the most serious threats to children's well-being. The cost of sexual abuse alone has been estimated at $23 billion annually. The most important evidence in child sexual abuse cases is the child's report, including their interactions with suspects and their disclosures of abuse. Although children are likely to talk with many individuals about their allegations (caregivers, medical professionals, social workers, attorneys), little is known about how children remember or report prior conversations about abuse. These prior conversations become central in later assessments of children's credibility; indeed, there is evidence that virtually all children testifing about sexual abuse in criminal court are questioned about their conversations with the suspect and with persons to whom they disclosed abuse. The current study will identify interviewing methods that facilitate children's accurate reporting of prior conversations while minimizing false reports. The project will address three specific aims: 1) To assess children's recall of prior conversations with adults suspected of transgressions; 2) To assess children's recall of disclosure conversations; 3) To identify linguistic difficulties in eliciting children's reports of conversations. The study will examine how well children recall conversations under different conditions, varying whether a transgression occurs, what the instigator of the alleged transgression has encouraged the child to report, and what an interviewer has suggested to the child. The findings will help us design questions about conversations that can be used both in our field research examining investigative interviews and, ultimately, by professionals who question children about maltreatment.