ABSTRACT
Critical appreciation of evidential interviewing has grown considerably since the introduction of the Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings (Home Office, 1992). Why, then, do we need to consider children's perspectives? First, because the reformed procedures for obtaining children's evidence, to which the Memorandum contributes, developed without any direct input from children themselves. Secondly, the opinions of children involved in investigative interviews can inform and improve practice, by increasing adults' understanding and empathy. Practitioners rarely receive direct feedback from children in their day-to-day work, relying primarily on their own interpretation of the child's experiences. It is easy for these interpretations to be wrong, or to miss subtle cues from the child, as Butler and Williamson (1994: 51) illustrate in this example from an interview with a 16 year-old girl, raped by her stepbrother at the age of 11:
Interviewer: So presumably being raped was the worst thing that has ever happened to you? Young woman: It was bad, but not the worst. The worst was when my stepbrother held me still - he used to get extra pocket money off my dad for helping him hit me - and my dad broke all my fingers, one by one.
