NCJ Number
156960
Date Published
1994
Length
249 pages
Annotation
This report evaluated the effectiveness of two California multidisciplinary interview centers where children believed to have been sexually abused are interviewed by highly trained specialists and where cases are evaluated by teams comprised of representatives of all agencies involved in the abuse investigation.
Abstract
The pilot project centers lowered the number of interviews needed to prepare child sexual abuse prosecutions by using trained interviewers adept at helping children reveal their experiences and able to gather the various information needed by all the agencies involved, by having different agency representatives observe the interview and suggest questions to the interviewer, and by providing a friendly environment to help children cope with the difficult task of telling. The experience of these two pilot programs demonstrates that multidisciplinary interview centers require commitment and leadership from all involved agencies, that the benefits of video recording interviews outweigh the disadvantages, and that interviewer training is essential to success. 13 appendixes