NEWS, LAWS & LEGISLATION SURROUNDING RAPE
PREPARING CHILDREN FOR COURT

Annual Training Schedule Offered by the American Prosecutors Research Institute's National Center for the Prosecution of Child Abuse (NCPCA)

Finding Words: Interviewing and Preparing Children for Court

In response to child abuse cases, prosecutors and investigators are called upon to speak with children about the abuse. Unfortunately, very few of these professionals have received comprehensive training on how to effectively interview a child about such abuse. As a result, many interviewers do not adequately elicit from a child victim the circumstances of their abuse or fail to recognize the legal significance of a poorly phrased question. These interviews are then easily challenged. Issues such as suggestibility of children or conspiracy of professionals all emanate from a lack of adequate training on how to conduct a forensic interview in a child abuse case. Many interviews are videotaped ensuring that improper questions are recorded and will be vulnerable to attack from defense counsel. These issues impelled the creation of Finding Words: Interviewing and Preparing Children for Court, document available from:

NCPCA
99 Canal Center Plaza
Suite 510 Alexandria, Virginia 22314,
USA 091 703 519 1644

19.17.2000

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