Difficulties experienced by Turkish legal support officers in forensic interviews with individuals with autism and/or intellectual disabilities

Abstract

ABSTRACT Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or intellectual disabilities (ID) can often victims and sometimes witnesses or defendant in forensic events. It is important to investigate the experiences of forensic interviewing with these individuals and to identify associated issues to conduct better forensic interviews with them. The present study aims to determine the experiences of the staff and interviewees in forensic interviews conducted with individuals with ASD/ID. The study was conducted with a phenomenological approach, and the data were collected with the semi-structured interview method and analyzed with content analysis. The findings obtained with the analysis of the study data with content analysis revealed three themes: forensic interviews, legal support officer, and the judicial process. In the study, it was concluded that individuals with ASD/ID could not express themselves effectively, could be traumatized during the interviews, the interviewers felt inadequate and experienced associated problems, and required training support and counseling by a special education specialist. It is recommended to create a protocol for the participation of special education experts in forensic interviews in order to support individuals with ASD/ID.