Suggestive interviewing in the McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels daycare abuse cases: A case study

Abstract

In the 1980s and early 1990s the United States witnessed an outbreak of bizarre “daycare abuse” cases in which groups of young children levelled allegations of sexual and Satanic abuse against their teachers. In the present study, quantitative analyses were performed on a total of 54 interview transcripts from two highly publicised daycare cases (McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels) and a comparison group of child sexual abuse cases from a Child Protection Service (CPS). Confirming the impression of prior commentators, systematic analyses showed that interviews from the two daycare cases were highly suggestive. Compared with the CPS interviews, the McMartin and/or Michaels interviewers were significantly more likely to (a) introduce new suggestive information into the interview, (b) provide praise, promises, and positive reinforcement, (c) express disapproval, disbelief, or disagreement with children, (d) exert conformity pressure, and (e) invite children to pretend or speculate about supposed events. Renata Strok is now at the Pacific School of Psychology, Palo Alto, CA. Lisa D. Bellah (formerly Lisa D. Velarde) is at the Federal Medical Center, Federal Bureau of Prisons, in Fort Worth, Texas. Yolanda Martinez is at Rio Vista Rehabilitation Center in El Paso, TX. Kristin McLaurin is at Porter and Hedges law firm in Houston, TX. Sena Garven is at the US Army Leadership School in Fort Leavenworth, KS. We wish to thank the following members of Por Ninos y Familias for transcribing and scoring the interviews in this study: Damian Aguilar, Gabriela Bernal, Eunice Buendia, Jennifer Carrasco, Gustavo Correa, Diana Martinez, Linda Mollinary, Gabriel Nevarez, Lucia Ramirez, Regina White, LeeAnne Williams, Betty Urquidi, and Zandra Zamora.