Children's responses when interviewers distort details during investigative interviews

Abstract

Objective. Misunderstandings sometimes occur during investigative interviews when an interviewer distorts details provided by the child. This was examined in the present study by investigating (i) when and how ‘distortions’ occur, and (ii) children's responses to the distortions.Method. In all, 140 such distortions were identified in 68 formal investigative interviews of 3‐ to 14‐year‐olds who had made allegations of sexual or physical abuse. Features of the utterance in which the distortion was made were coded (e.g. the complexity of the utterance, the topic that was being discussed) and analysis of variance and chi‐square tests were used to determine whether these affected children's responses to the interviewers' distortions.Results. One‐third of the distortions were corrected by the children. The children were most likely to correct interviewers when the distortions were embedded in short utterances and when the interviewers changed aspects of someone's identity. When children did not correct the interviewers, the interviewers continued to misrepresent the details in the remainder of the interview.Conclusions. Although some children felt comfortable correcting the interviewers, a substantial portion of the distortions were not corrected. The results of the study suggest that it might be valuable to inform children at the beginning of the interview that they can and should correct interviewers, and to provide children with the opportunity to practice doing this prior to the substantive phase of the interview.