Law and Legal Affairs: Fresh insight into abuse case guidelines

Published on Monday 3 January 2011 12:44

NEW research has called for child abuse victims to be interviewed more than once to allow more memories to surface. Psychologists said memory does not work like a video recorder and can "jump around" with "new scenes" emerging from subsequent interviews.

Current guidelines from the Scottish government and the Home Office state children should be interviewed only once or as little as possible, to minimise impact on the victim and prevent problems with evidence in court.

But researchers, from the University of Abertay and Cambridge University, said it was wrong for the legal profession to dismiss as less valid new memories from multiple interviews.

The Scottish guidelines are currently being updated for the first time since 2003.

Dr David La Rooy, at the University of Abertay, said the research should be considered by the legal profession, both for child victims and witnesses. He said: "What we found is that younger and older children can recall new information and new events.

"Guidelines recommend children are interviewed once, but in reality, on average they are interviewed four times. So on one hand the advice is to not do repeated interviews, but the reality is different as new facts emerge and children have to be reinterviewed.

"One of the objections is that repeated interviews could be traumatic. If children are interviewed with proper guidelines, they are able to recall events in very competent ways. If we plan to give a second chance to recall information, the risks we often assume do not materialise.

"Memory is not like a video recorder - it can jump around in time and new scenes can emerge. Everyone recalls more information when given the opportunity."

Dr La Rooy says that repeated interviews are always asked about and considered to be a problem feature of legal cases.

"Sometimes defence lawyers try to use inconsistencies as a way to leverage interviews out of court," he says, "but that's unfair. Children can elaborate and remember other evidence.

"Child sex abuse, for example, is not often a one-off crime and quite often involves repeated abuse, and for a child who has been repeatedly victimised to have just one interview is a bit unrealistic."

Dr La Rooy said it should not seem suspicious if a child comes back at some future time with another memory.

He said: "Contradictions are a different aspect, but when children are interviewed appropriately, they don't contradict themselves very often.You will see inconsistency, but not many contradictions.

"The advantages of conducting more than one interview should not be overlooked and should not send a message that there's something wrong with cases.

"As we become more confident about what we are learning about memory, guidelines need to take account that children recall more information if they are given more than one chance."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "We are working with all relevant partners to compile revised guidance on interviewing child witnesses.

"This will be issued in 2011 and will update the best-practice guidelines that have been in operation since 2003."

The research is published in the latest edition of Psychology, Public Policy and Law, the journal of the American Psychological Association.

Dr La Rooy worked on the paper with Dr Carmit Katz, Professor Michael Lamb and Dr Lindsay Malloy of Cambridge University on the paper.