COLLABORATIVE PROPOSAL: Legal Questioning of Adolescent Victims

与关于儿童记忆力和暗示能力的广泛和极具影响力的研究机构形成了关于如何从性虐待儿童受害者那里获得准确证词的明确指导方针不同，人们对如何询问青少年受害者知之甚少，尽管他们占受害者的很大比例，他们遭受过各种性虐待经历，并受到执法和法律当局的讯问。对于被性贩卖的青少年来说，缺乏指导方针更加令人震惊，他们经常被确认为犯罪嫌疑人，并受到警方的讯问，而不是训练有素的法医专家。如何接近和采访青少年受害者，特别是那些被贩运的受害者，从来没有得到全面的审查。然而，包括审讯员和警察在内的专业人员必须以一种促使受害者明确披露其经历的方式对这些青少年进行讯问，以便进行干预，确保对他们的保护，并起诉那些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和法律专业人员对疑似青少年受害者的实际访谈，包括那些被贩卖的受害者。它将确定使用哪种类型的讯问方法，哪些方法在引出虐待和贩运细节方面或多或少有效，以及问题和受害者的反应与针对人贩子的刑事案件的结果有何关系。这项研究的结果将为高度脆弱的受害者群体的披露模式提供科学模型。这些成果还将对政策和做法产生影响，因为它有助于深入了解对青春期性虐待受害者，特别是被贩运受害者的有效审问方法，从而为关于这些方法的培训方案以及在实践和政策方面的长期改进奠定基础。这项研究将具体涉及对340名青少年受害者、一半人口贩运受害者和一半经历过其他形式性虐待的青少年的采访记录进行审查和编码。对于开庭审理的案件，受害者的证词、案件细节和案件结果数据的文字记录也将被收集和编码。统计分析将侧重于所提问题的类型和语气(例如，语气是支持性的还是审讯性的)，以及受害者回答的特点，如他们是否披露了虐待行为、提供了多少细节、他们报告的内容以及他们的回避程度。有了这个广泛的编码系统，将评估问题和回答类别之间的联系，以确定哪些类型的问题在引发受害者特定类型的反应方面更有效，以及问题和回答如何直接和交互地与案件结果相关。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.