ABSTRACT
Research on the suggestibility of children has achieved a far-ranging impact on the evolution of standards for investigative interviewing. Assumptions about the strengths and weaknesses of children as witnesses underlie varied recommendations regarding strategies for raising abuse issues, the types of questions interviewers should ask, what ancillary aids are considered acceptable at various points during the interviewing process, and the number of interviews that are considered appropriate (see Everson & Boat, chap. 16, this volume; Saywitz & Lyon, chap. 4, this volume). Although many research topics help us to understand children’s behavior during investigative interviews, including basic research on the development of attention, event memories, language, and concept formation (Poole & Lamb, 1998), controversies about what constitutes best practice in forensic evaluation have hinged predominantly on interpretations of the data on children’s suggestibility.
