Interviewing Child Witnesses: Past and Future
| Author | Ray Bull,Eleanor Corran |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijps.4.4.315.10872 |
| Published date | 01 October 2002 |
| Date | 01 October 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 4 Number 4
Interviewing child witnesses: Past and
future
Ray Bull and Eleanor Corran
Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 2DY, UK; Tel.
02392 846300; Fax: 02392 846329; E-mail Ray.Bull@port.ac.uk; (reprint requests and
correspondence should be sent to Ray Bull)
Received: 1 July 2002; revised and accepted 8 August 2002
Dr Ray Bull is Professor of Psychology at the
they will now largely interview (alleged)
University of Portsmouth. His main of research
child witnesses/victims? This important
focus is on investigative interviewing. He has
issue has hardly been addressed in police
held and co-held relevant research grants from
training or in relevant guidance documents.
the Home Office and from the Economic and
However, there is a slowly accumulating
Social Research Council (ESRC) in the United
body of research, which suggests that this is
Kingdom. He was a member of the team com-
an important issue.
missioned by the Home Office to draft the 2002
In England and Wales the Government’s
document, ‘Achieving the Best Evidence’ and
Memorandum of good practice for video recorded
the 1992 document ‘Memorandum of Good
interviews with child witnesses for criminal pro-
Practice’.
ceedings (Home Office and Department of
Eleanor Corran is a graduate of the Department
Health, 1992) recommends that ‘the inter-
of Psychology at the University of Portsmouth.
viewer should be careful . . . throughout the
interview not to overemphasise his or her
A
authority in relation to the child’ (p. 16).
BSTRACT
While this recommendation may well make
Much of the improvement in child witness inter-
sense from a psychological and professional
viewing in England and Wales has been based on
point of view, there was at the time of
the findings of psychological research concerning
drafting the memorandum (Bull, 1992,
memory and language. However, relatively little
1996) very little published on the role of
research has been conducted on the possible influ-
interviewer authority in interviews with
ence of interviewer style or manner. This article
children. Avoiding too much authority was
reviews the limited previous research on this topic
and presents a new study. It seems that an
recommended not solely better to enable
authoritative interviewing style may increase
the child to feel at ease but also to reduce
children’s errors to suggestive questions.
the chances of the child going along with
suggestions wittingly or unwittingly made
by the interviewer (Milne and Bull, 1999).
INTRODUCTION
The recent update of that document (ie
Should police officers experienced at inter-
Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceed-
viewing adults suspected of committing
ings: Guidance for Vulnerable or Intimidated
crimes adopt the same behavioural style
Witnesses, including Children, Home Office,
International Journal of Police
Science and Management,
they employ for this setting when ‘trans-
2002) again was not able to offer much
Vol. 4 No. 4, 2002, pp. 315–322.
© Vathek Publishing,
ferred’ to a ‘child protection unit’ in which
guidance on this particular topic.
1461–3557
Page 315
Interviewing child witnesses
While much of the guidance in these
their school or by an adult had few effects
official documents was based upon peer-
(perhaps this was because the adults worked
reviewed, published research, some of it had
at the school and therefore were not strang-
to rely, in the absence of relevant research,
ers in an authority role). Goodman, Bot-
on best judgement. Prior to 1992 almost no
toms, Schwartz-Kenney, and Rudy (1991)
research had been published directly on the
found that the provision of social support to
effects in investigative interviews with chil-
children in the form of smiles, verbal
dren of interviewers’ manner of behaving.
encouragements (and a snack) given by the
However, quite a lot of relevant research
interviewer reduced incorrect free recall
had been published, for example, about the
and (for the younger ones) errors in
phases such interviews should go through
response to misleading questions. In a study
and about the effects of various types of
by Tobey and Goodman (1992) young chil-
questions (Milne and Bull, 1999). However,
dren participated in an event and were later
all that was available to steer the 1992
interviewed by someone dressed as a police
guidance about interviewer manner was
officer or as a lay person. The recall of the
psychological research on social influence.
children in the former condition was less
For example, Latane’s (1981) account of
accurate. However, the effect of the inter-
social impact noted that the strength of
viewer being a police officer was con-
social influence is largely determined by the
founded by only the children in this
status and ability of the influencer, and the
condition being earlier told by another
nature of his/her relationship with the
police officer that ‘I am very concerned that
other person. Investigative interviews with
something bad might have happened . . .
young children would seem a ripe setting
My partner is going to come in now and
for social influence to occur. However,
ask you some questions about what hap-
comprehensive accounts of work on social
pened’ (p. 783).
influence (eg Cialdini, 1995, 2001) make
In their comprehensive overview of
no mention of such a setting. It is possible
research on children’s testimony Ceci and
that children, especially younger ones, are
Bruck (1995) briefly described the limited
more likely to respond incorrectly to mis-
published research...
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