children - Forensic Science Club

Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Testing an Evaluation Tool to Facilitate Police Officers’ Peer Review of Child Interview”, by Danby, M. C.; Sharman, S. J. and Guadagno, B. (2022), in which authors propose a new approach to facilitate good practices when it comes about interrogate children who may have suffered sexual abuse.

When a case of child abuse comes up, one of the first steps the police take is conducting an interview with the child.

Since physical evidence often does not exist in child abuse cases (because, for example, it’s something that happened a some time ago), the ability of police interviewers to obtain detailed and accurate information from the child may be vital to the outcomes of the investigation.

Over the last few decades, many studies have focused on examining interview techniques for obtaining children’s reports, and as a result, there are now a good number of evidence-based guidelines to improve interviews with children, and make it easier for children to provide complete, accurate and unbiased information.

There is a certain consensus on the key elements that constitute good interviewing practices, which are generally structured in separate phases.

We have, first of all, the opening phase, where the interviewers introduce themselves to the child and build a relationship with him/her, explain the need to tell the truth and tell him/her how the interview will work.

Then, we move on to the transition phase, where the conversation changes to substantive topics. This should occur in an undirected way and interviewers should avoid introducing details about the alleged abuse.

Once the topic of concern is established, the interviewers begin with the substantive phase, in which the alleged abuse is thoroughly explored, using open-ended questions to allow the child to freely narrate what happened.

Despite expert agreement on the core elements of good interviewing practices, interviewers have difficulty adhering to them when push comes to shove. They sometimes ask controversial or leading questions to bring up the topic of abuse in the conversation, they ask leading questions instead of open-ended ones, they fail to sufficiently isolate and label incidents of alleged abuse…

For this reason, specific courses and training are recommended for those who must deal with this type of situation in their working life, so that they are adapted as best as possible to the recommended good practices.

One strategy that helps to improve and maintain interviewers’ use of open-ended questions after training is to provide ongoing feedback from experts. However, it is an intense task that requires a lot of time.

A more feasible alternative is peer feedback, which will be more available to interviewers, and more frequently, than feedback from experts and superiors, and does not pose much of a workload challenge, as a second interviewer is often present during these types of interviews. The problem is that peers don’t have the same knowledge as experts sometimes.

In the current study, the goal was to test the accuracy of forensic interviewers when evaluating simulated transcripts of a child interview. To do this, authors conducted two studies. The first, with 56 police officers from one jurisdiction; the second, with 37 police officers from a different jurisdiction.

All recently completed a 10-day training program in child forensic interviewing.

Participants were provided with a transcript of a child forensic interview, and were asked to rank each question posed in the substantive phase (open-ended, facilitating, main, in-depth…). They also were provided with a set of best practice guidelines which they will compare with the transcription.

In the case of the first experiment, participants were less accurate in evaluating transcripts that showed mixed adherence to best practices. Some previous studies mention how mixed transcripts are especially difficult to assess. In the review of the transition phase there was also less precision than expected.

Participants in the second study were also less accurate when reviewing the initial and substantive phases, showing mixed adherence to best practice.

One reason participants may have obtained these results, authors propose, is the rigid nature of the checklist that is often used as an assessment tool. This list forced participants to select dichotomous responses, and reality may not be as simple as choosing black or white.

Authors therefore propose that research should work on developing and testing tools that are more flexible than a dichotomous checklist.

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Friends of the Forensic Science Club, this week we present the paper “Mechanisms for protecting children’s rights and the role of psychological services in the juvenile justice system of Russia against the background of international practices”, by Orsayeva, R.; Vasyaev, A. and Shestak, V. (2022), in which authors carry out a critical analysis about the current situation of the criminal system and criminal procedure system in Russia, applied to minors and young people.

Children’s rights’ protection remains one of the most serious challenges that modern societies are facing.

Despite the efforts of the authorities and society to improve the protection of children, the strategies aimed at some issues, such as the interventions of young people in the penal system or prevention so that they do not suffer violence and the abandonment by their families, have not been resolved.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has been ratified by all European countries and has helped to strengthen the culture of child protection. However, the obtained results are not the expected ones.

Furthermore, in juvenile justice, violations of children’s rights are everywhere, and it seems that in the last decade there has been a regression rather than a progress or even a stagnation. This can be explained because, perhaps, society does not know exactly how the rights of the child can contribute and improve the juvenile justice system.

Regarding the protection of children’s rights and the juvenile justice system in Russia, there is a problem of discrepancy between the rights declared by law and the rights that are effectively applied.

A separate topic is the characteristics and psychological problems of adolescents in the justice system. In the last 10 years, only in the US, the percentage of young people who had had contact with the penal system and who, in addition, had mental health problems, amounted to 70%.

The aim of this study is to analyze the status and effectiveness of child rights protection mechanisms in Russia, to compare it with the laws of other states, doing the same with the juvenile justice system. The problem of mental health in young people who come into contact with this system is also briefly reviewed.

In the legal field, there are many discussions about the negative aspects of juvenile justice and its implementation in Russia.

The main negative aspect is the state control over the family. Juvenile justice workers are authorized to take the child away from his/her family when the parents are accused of abuse, inability to provide adequate nutrition, inadequate financial situation, among others.

Therefore, society is scared that families may be deprived of their children, as there are a large number of them living in poverty.

However, these fears are exaggerated. The objective of juvenile justice is simply to be a guarantee of the basic rights of the child and action will only be taken when there is evidence of these accusations.

In addition, in Russia, the juvenile justice system is based on the subjective opinions of the representatives of its organs, therefore, in a significant number of cases, the courts do not satisfy requests for placement in a juvenile detention center. In addition, there is no professional psychological evaluation in court, and it is well known that, based on these, social and psychological measures are planned and organized in order to maximize the success of the child’s development.

Regarding the problem of mental health, numerous studies confirm that a significant proportion of young people in the juvenile justice system suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder. According to available data in Russia, among adolescent offenders, the number of people with mental disorders is at least 50% of cases.

Authors propose that the system’s priority should be to dedicate resources to social programs aimed at preventing juvenile delinquency, in addition to providing opportunities for those who are prone to offending. It is extremely important to support both the police and other authorities, as well as programs aimed at people at risk.

School personnel, social services, non-profit organizations and society must make a great effort. It is through the exercise of all powers that the integrity of the juvenile justice system can be maintained while providing appropriate alternatives to minors who are unable or unwilling to obtain assistance.

Furthermore, to finish developing fair justice, authors think that Russia must go beyond the legal concept of justice, and change to one that can combat inequalities of any kind, be they of a criminal or social nature. This would be particularly important in the context of youth, as they are affected by unfair policies, as authors comment. This would be the social justice approach that they consider can point the way forward.