|
Interviewing:
Establishing
Trust
|
|
|
|
|
||
| It
is appropriate for the initial
evaluator,
the person who's going to interview a child for suspected sexual abuse,
to establish trust with the child by forming a relationship with the
child,
to ensure that the child will feel some degree of control over the
interview.
And then, subsequently, the interviewer can approach the subject of
sexual
abuse. Then, when the child is first evaluated -- when
you're
working with a clean slate -- it will be possible to get an accurate
description
of what took place. Thereafter one should minimize any further
evaluations
for a number of reasons. CAVEAT
There is danger in evaluating
a child. Children are very susceptible to suggestion.
Please read Stephen Ceci's books. One of them is Witnesses in Child
Sexual Abuse Cases: What Can and Should Be Said
in Court Stephen
J. Ceci (Editor), Helene Hembrooke (Editor), another
book with the imprimatur of the guru of the field of children's
suggestibility. Read also the amicus brief to Margaret Kelly Michaels' case on this website: Amicus Brief by Committee of Concerned Social Scientists, State of NewJersey v. Margaret Kelly Michaels |
|
