A Robot Forensic Interviewer

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to begin a discussion of the benefits, challenges, and ethical concerns related to the use of robots as intermediaries for obtaining sensitive information from children within the human-robot interaction (HRI), criminology, sociology, legal, and psychological communities. This work examines how robots may impede disclosures from children, encourage inaccurate disclosures, facilitate unintended disclosures, provide a more reliable interviewer, decrease the likelihood of misleading children, and enhance forensic interviews through high fidelity data logging. Open research questions, proposed research studies, and pathways toward deployment of robots as forensic interviewers are provided. As HRI researchers working in an interdisciplinary team, with members trained by the National Child Advocacy Center in Child Forensic Interview Protocols, we believe sustaining a dialogue concerning the design and appropriate use of robots in this area is essential for continued progress.

A Meta-analysis on Children’s Trust in Social Robots

“…The absence of any effect for social trust is surprising, given the predominant focus on social and interpersonal trust in the literature (e.g., [14,39,40,52]). One explanation for this is that there was more variation in studies measuring social trust, which can be seen by comparing Figs.…”

“…Wizard of Oz designs can allow for manipulation of features that are not yet technically possible, as well as guide towards features to focus on in future autonomous programming. Nonetheless, human control over the robot could allow for combinations of behaviour that are not necessarily realistic [79], as well as introduce issues with transparency and perceived agency, especially as regards children as users [40,102,103]. Thus, as technological capacities progress, comparing WoZ to autonomous or semi-autonomous robot designs will allow for a more nuanced understanding of how and if having a human controller affects different aspects of the interaction, such as trust.…”