Structure of Interrogation of Juvenile Victims of Violent Sex Crimes

Abstract

The development of a single certified approach to the process of obtaining the testimony of minor victims, the availability of pre-formulated questions in an understandable for a child manner is one of the ways to increase the effectiveness of interrogation. Domestic forensics does not allocate a dedicated structure for questioning juvenile victims of sexual violence. International practice has different protocols, among which we should highlight the NICHD and RATAC, individual achievements of which can be used effectively in the domestic tactics. The working stage of the interrogation must pass through the stages of establishing psychological contact, acquaintance, explanation of the purpose and procedure of the investigative action, small talks, casual talk of a minor about the sexual abuse, questions, and the use of auxiliary elements. Particular attention should be given to the instructions to minors concerning the rules for replies "I do not know, I do not remember, I do not understand", as due to their age they may not clearly understand them. The stage of a minor's casual talk provides little information, so the question stage is of high importance. We offer to pay special attention to the form of questions, since a child, based on it, concludes if the interrogator implies a "correct" answer. Having considered closed, open, direct, non-structural and abstract questions, we conclude that there is some feasibility for using open-ended questions, direct questions as clarifying, while setting other types of questions should be kept to a minimum. Unstructured questions can be used when asking only minors of senior school age, if the level of their development make it possible. Despite the criticism of anatomical dolls and charts, their use is possible in some strictly defined cases, if other means were not effective.