Abstract
This paper aims to examine forensic interviewing techniques during child sexual abuse allegations using South African lenses. Forensic Social Work education and practice in South Africa is emerging as it has been adopted from the United States of America.  There are currently no guidelines for forensic social workers to inform the assessment of children who are alleged to be sexually abused which are in a South African context. For the protection of children, skillful forensic interviews must be conducted for perpetrators of child sexual abuse to be convicted. Forensic interviews help in eliciting accurate and complete report from the alleged child victim to determine if the child has been sexually abused and if so, by whom. The ecosystems theory is used to guide this paper. An extensive literature review was conducted to zoom into systems in South Africa which influence the effectiveness of the forensic interviewing techniques useful to facilitate the disclosure of sexual abuse amongst children.
Highlights
Introduction and BackgroundChild sexual abuse (CSA) is an alarming social and health problem globally
This paper aims to examine forensic interviewing techniques during child sexual abuse allegations using South African lenses
There are currently no guidelines for forensic social workers to inform the assessment of children who are alleged to be sexually abused which are in a South African context
Summary
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is an alarming social and health problem globally. South Africa in particular, has in the past encountered lot of incidents of CSA and such were not reported due to various reasons. Children are not believed after they have disclosed sexual abuse, instead they are blamed for the consequences of the disclosure For these reasons, forensic social work in South Africa has been adopted from the United States of America to facilitate the disclosure of CSA. Due to scant training on forensic social work in South Africa, and shortage of well-structured programmes and guidelines, majority of forensic social workers conduct assessments on sexually abused children and testify in courts on this matter without proper qualifications or specialization in this field (Fouché, 2006, Kaliski, 2006) This can cause a dilemma, because if the professional that interviews the child is not equipped to perform this kind of interview, there may in the end not be enough evidence to prosecute someone. Forensic social workers should use the ecosystems theory to guide them understand different practices in different settings (Franklin & Jordan, 1999) and how they can have an influence during forensic interviews
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