The influence of prior knowledge on inexperienced interviewers' questioning of children

Abstract

AbstractThirty‐eight interviewers with no prior investigative interviewing experience questioned school‐aged children (N = 68, aged 6–10 years) about a personally experienced event. These interviewers relied primarily on question types that are not recommended by interviewing guidelines. Providing interviewers with misleading prior knowledge exacerbated this negative questioning style by significantly increasing the likelihood of suggestive questioning, compared to interviewers who received only vague background information. These findings, coupled with the infiltration of prior knowledge into some children's testimonies, raise concerns about the natural questioning styles to which children are exposed when interviewed by adults who are not trained in forensic interviewing.