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Child Witness Paper
Police Research Series
Paper 115

Interviewing Child Witnesses under the Memorandum of
Good Practice:
A research review

Graham M. Davies
Helen L. Westcott

Police Research Series
Paper 115

Interviewing Child Witnesses under the Memorandum of
Good Practice:
A research review

Graham M. Davies
Helen L. Westcott

Editor: Barry Webb
Home Office
Policing and Reducing Crime Unit
Research, Development and Statistics Directorate
Clive House, Petty France
London, SW1H 9HD

C

Crown Copyright 1999
First Published 1999

Policing and Reducing Crime Unit: Police Research Series
The Policing and Reducing Crime Unit (PRC) was formed in 1998 as a result of the merger of the Police Research Group (PRG) and the Research and Statistics
Directorate. PRC is now part of the Research, Development and Statistics
Directorate of the Home Office. PRC carries out and commissions research in the social and management sciences on policing and crime reduction.
PRC has now combined PRG’s two main series into the Police Research Series.
The series will present research material on crime prevention and detection as well as police management and organisation issues.
Research commissioned by PRG will appear as a PRC publication.

ISBN 1-84082-328-3

Copies of this publication can be made available in formats accessible to the visually impaired on request.

(ii)

Foreword
The ‘Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings’ (Home Office/Department of Health) was published in
1992 to provide guidance to police officers and social workers responsible for undertaking video-recorded interviews with child victims or witnesses. The document outlined core principles to be followed when conducting interviews; the video could then be played in court to spare the child the necessity of giving live examination-in-chief. Since 1992, much literature and research has been generated around the



References: Aldridge, J . (1997) Next steps after the Memorandum: Preparing children for court Aldridge, J. and Freshwater, K. (1993) The preparation of child witnesses. Tolley’s Journal of Child Law , 5, 25-28. (1995) Practice Guidelines: Use of Anatomical Dolls in Child Sexual Abuse Assessment American Psychological Association. (1991) Statement on the use of anatomically detailed dolls in forensic evaluations Aschermann, E., Dannenberg, U., and Schultz, A-P . (1997) ‘Photographs as retrieval cues for children.’ Applied Cognitive Psychology, 11. Development, 64, 1519-1533. Barker, B., Jones, J., Saradjian, J. and Wardell, R . (1998) Abuse in Early Years: Report of the Independent Inquiry into Shieldfield Nursery and Related Events. Bekerian, D.A. and Dennett, J . (1992) ‘The truth in content analyses of a child’s testimony.’ In F Bekerian, D.A. and Dennett, J . (1995) The Child’s Account. Evidential Interviews with Children: Observations and Recommendations on Video Procedures and Interview Bernard. C. (1995) A study of black mothers’ emotional and behavioural responses to the sexual abuse of their children (1993) ‘Children’s perceptions of genital examinations during sexual abuse evaluations.’ Child Welfare, Boggs, S.R. and Eyberg, S.E. (1990) ‘Interview techniques and establishing rapport.’ In A.M Bradford, R . (1994) ‘Developing an objective approach to assessing allegations of sexual abuse.’ Child Abuse Review , 3, 93-101. Bradley, A. R. and Wood, J.M. (1996) ‘How do children tell? The disclosure process in child sexual abuse’ Brainerd, C.J., Reyna, V .F., Howe, M.L. and Kingma, J . (1990) ‘The development of forgetting and reminiscence.’ Monographs of the Society for Brownlow, J. and Waller, B . (1997) ‘The Memorandum: A social services perspective.’ In H.L (1995) ‘Anatomically detailed dolls do not facilitate preschoolers’ reports of a pediatric examination Bull, R . (1995) ‘Good practice for video recorded interviews with child witnesses for use in criminal proceedings.’ In G Burgess, A. W. and Hartman, C.R . (1993) ‘Children’s drawings.’ Child Abuse and Neglect, 17, 161-172. Butler, A. (1993) ‘Spare the child.’ Police Review, 141-151. Butler, A. (1997) ‘The Memorandum: The police view.’ In H.L. Westcott and J. Butler, S., Gross, J. and Hayne, H. (1995) ‘The effect of drawing on memory performance in young children.’ Developmental Psychology, 31, 597-608. Campis, L.B., Hebden-Curtis, J. and Demaso, D.R . (1993) ‘Developmental differences in detection and disclosure of sexual abuse.’ Journal of the American Carter, C.A., Bottoms, B.L. and Levine, M. (1996) ‘Linguistic and socioemotional influences on the accuracy of children’s reports.’ Law and Human Cassel, W. and Bjorklund, D . (1995) ‘Developmental patterns of eyewitness responses to repeated and increasingly suggestive questions.’ Law and Human Ceci, S.J. and Bruck, M. (1993) ‘Suggestibility of the child witness: A historical review and synthesis.’ Psychological Bulletin , 113, 403-439. Ceci, S.J. and Bruck, M. (1995) Jeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific Analysis of Children’s T Ceci, S.J., Crotteau Huffman, M.L. and Smith, E. (1994) ‘Repeatedly thinking about a non-event: Source misattributions among preschoolers.’ Consciousness and Chandler, J. and Lait, D . (1996) ‘An analysis of children as witnesses in the crown court.’ In Victim Support (Ed), Children in Court Cheung, K-F. (1997) ‘Developing the interview protocol for video-recorded child sexual abuse investigations: A training experience with police officers, social workers Christianson, S-A. (1992) ‘Emotional stress and eyewitness memory: A critical review.’ Psychological Bulletin, 112, 284-309. Clarke, C. (1994) The Effect of Police Officers’ Language When Interviewing Children .

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