ABSTRACT
Cases involving allegations of sexual abuse are complex just by their very secret nature. Sexual abuse is rarely witnessed and there are often no physical findings. Best evidence is a child's statement. Interviewers need to understand best interviewing practices, children's challenges with memory and suggestibility, source monitoring, coaching, how children's cognitive development and language skills can impact their reporting, and the complex dynamics of family systems that may affect a child's report of abuse. Understanding how a false negative or false positive can impact a child, the family and the alleged perpetrator is important as is understanding why using standard interview techniques and developing and testing of multiple hypotheses are essential to decrease bias. This chapter looks at child interviews in four venues: adult criminal, juvenile criminal, dependency, and child custody to illustrate the kinds of challenges that exist in these complex cases.
