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Interviews of Children in a Portuguese Special Judicial Procedure
Author(s) -
Peixoto Carlos Eduardo,
Fernandes Raquel Veludo,
Almeida Telma Sousa,
Silva Júlia Marina,
La Rooy David,
Ribeiro Catarina,
Magalhães Teresa,
Lamb Michael E.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
behavioral sciences and the law
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.649
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1099-0798
pISSN - 0735-3936
DOI - 10.1002/bsl.2284
Subject(s) - credibility , portuguese , directive , psychology , child sexual abuse , statement (logic) , interview , suicide prevention , poison control , sexual abuse , medical education , medicine , law , political science , medical emergency , philosophy , linguistics , computer science , programming language
Abstract Since 2007, alleged victims of child sexual abuse in Portugal have provided evidence in a mandatory “Declarações para Memória Futura” (DMF; English transl. ‘Statement for future use’) proceeding. In order to protect children from having to testify in court, interviews conducted at the DMF can be used later as trial evidence because the hearings are conducted by judges. The present study examined 137 interviews with 3‐ to 17‐year‐olds conducted in several Portuguese criminal courts. Detailed examination of interview transcripts showed that 69% of all questions asked were option‐posing questions , 16% were directive questions , 11% were suggestive questions , and only 3% were open‐ended prompts . The vast majority of details provided by children were thus obtained using the risky recognition‐based prompts (i.e., option posing and suggestive questions) associated with the risks of contaminating and limiting children's informativeness, both potential threats to the credibility of their testimony. There is an urgent need to address this issue and consider the implementation of a scientifically validated structured interview protocol in Portugal. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.