Repeated Self- and Peer-Review Leads to Continuous Improvement in Child Interviewing Performance

Article Sidebar

PDF
Published: Jan 4, 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1936928X.2015.1068721

Main Article Content

Stacia Stolzenberg
Thomas Lyon

Abstract

The present study examined whether a training model that focuses on consistent exposure to protocol procedure, self-evaluation, and intensive peer-review sessions could improve interviewers’ ability to adhere to best practices. Law students (N = 19) interviewed 5- to 10-year-old children on a weekly basis as part of a semester-long forensic child interviewing class. They transcribed their interviews, and participated in 1-hr self- and peer-reviews. The proportion of each question type was calculated (option-posing, Wh- questions [what, how, where, why, when, and who], and open-invitations) within each interview for each interviewer. Across 10 weeks of interviews, interviewers consistently improved their performance, decreasing the proportion of option-posing questions by 31% and increasing the proportion of open-invitations by 47%. All interviewers improved. The present study suggests that with consistent self-evaluation and peer-review, forensic interviewers can incrementally improve their performance.

Article Details

How to Cite
Stolzenberg, S., & Thomas Lyon. (2016). Repeated Self- and Peer-Review Leads to Continuous Improvement in Child Interviewing Performance. Journal of Forensic Social Work, 5(1-3), 20–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/1936928X.2015.1068721
Issue
Vol. 5 No. 1-3 (2015)
Section
Articles
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

  • No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

References

Ahern, E. C., Stolzenberg, S. N., & Lyon, T. D. (2015). Do prosecutors use interview instructions or build rapport with child witnesses? Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 33. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/bsl.2183

Aldridge, J., & Cameron, S. (1999). Interviewing child witnesses: Questioning techniques and the role of training. Applied Developmental Science, 3, 136-147. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532480xads0302_7

American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. (2012). Practice guidelines: Investigative interviewing in cases of alleged child abuse. Retrieved from http://www.apsac.org/ (last accessed 6/11/15).

Cederborg, A. C., Alm, C., da Silva Nises, D., & Lamb, M. (2013). Investigative interviewing of alleged child abuse victims: An evaluation of a new training programme for investigative interviewers. Police Practice and Research, 14, 242-254. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2012.712292

Cederborg, A. C., Orbach, Y., Sternberg, K. J., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Investigative interviews of child witnesses in Sweden. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24, 1355-1361. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0145-2134(00)00183-6

Craig, R. A., Scheibe, R., Raskin, D. C., Kircher, J. C., & Dodd, D. H. (1999). Interviewer questions and content analysis of children's statements of sexual abuse. Applied Developmental Science, 3, 77-85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532480xads0302_2

Lamb, M. E., & Fauchier, A. (2001). The effects of question type on self contradictions by children in the course of forensic interviews. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 15, 483-491. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.726

Lamb, M. E., Hershkowitz, I., Orbach, Y., & Esplin, P. W. (2008). Tell me what happened: Structured investigative interviews of child victims and witnesses. Chichester, UK: Wiley. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470773291

Lamb, M. E., La Rooy, D. J., Malloy, L. C., & Katz, C. (Eds.). (2011). Children's testimony: A handbook of psychological research and forensic practice. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119998495

Lamb, M. E., Orbach, Y., Hershkowitz, I., Esplin, P. W., & Horowitz, D. (2007). Structured forensic interview protocol improves the quality and informativeness of investigative interviews with children: A review of research using the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol. Child Abuse and Neglect, 31, 1201-1231. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2007.03.021

Lamb, M. E., Orbach, Y., Hershkowitz, I., Horowitz, D., & Abbott, C. B. (2007). Does the type of prompt affect the accuracy of information provided by alleged victims of abuse in forensic interviews? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 21, 1117-1130. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1318

Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Orbach, Y., Esplin, P. W., & Mitchell, S. (2002a). Is ongoing feedback necessary to maintain the quality of investigative interviews with allegedly abused children? Applied Developmental Science, 6, 35-41. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS0601_04

Lamb, M. E., Sternberg, K. J., Orbach, Y., Hershkowitz, I., Horowitz, D., & Esplin, P. W. (2002b). The effects of intensive training and ongoing supervision on the quality of investigative interviews with alleged sex abuse victims. Applied Developmental Science, 6, 114-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS0603_2

Lyon, T. D. (2014). Interviewing children. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 10, 73-89. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-110413-030913

Lyon, T. D., Scurich, N., Choi, K., Handmaker, S., & Blank, K. (2012). ''How did you feel?'': Increasing child sexual abuse witnesses' production of evaluative information. Law & Human Behavior, 36, 448-457. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093986

Snow, P. C., Powell, M. B., & Murfett, R. (2009). Getting the story from child witnesses: Exploring the application of a story grammar framework. Psychology, Crime & Law, 15, 555-568. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10683160802409347

Sternberg, K. J., Lamb, M. E., Davies, G. M., & Westcott, H. L. (2001). The memorandum of good practice: Theory versus application. Child Abuse & Neglect, 25, 669-681. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0145-2134(01)00232-0

Sternberg, K. J., Lamb, M. E., Hershkowitz, I., Esplin, P. W., Redlich, A., & Sunshine, N. (1996). The relation between investigative utterance types and the informativeness of child witnesses. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 17, 439-451. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0193-3973(96)90036-2

Stevenson, K. M., Leung, P., & Cheung, R. M. (1992). Competency-based evaluation of interviewing skills in child sexual abuse cases. Social Work Research and Abstracts, 28, 11-16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/swra/28.3.11

Warren, A. R., Woodall, C. E., Thomas, M., Nunno, M., Keeney, J. M., Larson, S. M., & Stadfeld, J. A. (1999). Assessing the effectiveness of a training program for interviewing child witnesses. Applied Developmental Science, 3, 128-135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532480xads0302_6