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

 描述（由申请人提供）：虐待儿童被广泛认为是对儿童福祉最严重的威胁之一。据估计，仅性虐待一项每年就造成230亿美元的损失。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以及他们对虐待的披露。尽管儿童可能会与许多人（照顾者、医疗专业人员、社会工作者、律师）谈论他们的指控，但人们对儿童如何记忆或报告先前关于虐待的谈话知之甚少。这些先前的谈话在后来评估儿童的可信度时成为核心;事实上，有证据表明，几乎所有在刑事法庭上就性虐待作证的儿童都被问及他们与嫌疑人和他们向其透露虐待行为的人的谈话。目前的研究将确定的采访方法，促进儿童的准确报告先前的对话，同时尽量减少虚假的 报道该项目将针对三个具体目标：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）确定引发儿童报告的语言困难。 对话。这项研究将考察儿童在不同条件下回忆对话的情况，包括是否发生违法行为，所谓违法行为的煽动者鼓励儿童报告什么，以及采访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我们的实地研究，也可以用于调查性访谈，最终也可以用于询问儿童虐待问题的专业人员。

 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.