ABSTRACT

Many investigative interviews with children who report that they have been victims of crime are carried out by one interviewer. Some interviews, however, may involve more than one interviewer. There has been little research examining the impact upon children’s reports when more than one interviewer (or adult) is present. Over the course of two experimental studies, involving 375 children in total, the effects that the number of adults (present in such interviews) had on children’s recall were investigated. It was found that the number of the adults present during an interview had an effect on the quality and quantity of the information children provided. When children were interviewed by a single interviewer, with no-one else present, the children provided lengthier and more accurate accounts, in comparison to when children were interviewed by an interviewer in the presence of either one or two additional adults. These findings have implications for the conduct of forensic interviews, especially in those countries where several adults are present in forensic interviews.

摘要

许多对自称是犯罪受害者的儿童进行的调查访谈都是由一名访谈员进行的。然而，有些采访可能涉及不止一名采访者。很少有研究检查当不止一名访问员（或成人）在场时对儿童报告的影响。在两项共涉及 375 名儿童的实验研究过程中，调查了成人人数（参加此类访谈）对儿童回忆的影响。结果发现，在采访中在场的成年人数量对儿童提供的信息的质量和数量有影响。当孩子们被一个采访者采访时，没有其他人在场，孩子们提供了更长更准确的陈述，与儿童在一个或两个其他成年人在场的情况下接受采访者的采访相比。这些发现对法医讯问的进行具有影响，特别是在法医讯问中有多名成年人的国家。