Developing Rapport with Children in Forensic Interviews: Systematic Review of Experimental Research

Abstract

The vast majority of guidelines recommend that developing rapport with children is essential for successful forensic child interviewing; however, the question remains as to whether there is a sufficient body of scientific research to generate evidence-based guidelines for developing rapport with children in legal contexts. To answer this question, we conducted a systematic review of the literature to identify experimental studies of the effects of rapport-building methods on the reliability of children's reports. Independent raters applied 12 exclusion criteria to the 2,761 potentially relevant articles located by electronic and hand searches of the literature. Experimental studies were few. Although studies to date are a beginning, the overall scientific base is weak regarding even basic issues such as how to best define rapport and the efficacy of common rapport-building techniques. This systematic review highlights what we know, what we do not know, and how much more we need to know to create evidence-based best practice. Recommendations for reshaping the research agenda are discussed.

Can rapport building strategies, age, and question type influence preschoolers’ disclosures of adult wrongdoing?

“…Moreover, while Tickle‐Degnen and Rosenthal () did acknowledge that some people are more adapt at building rapport than others, rapport was defined as a shared experience between two or more people and hence, not a personality trait. Successful factors for establishing rapport may, however, be closely intertwined with interviewer characteristics such as warmth, friendliness, empathy, humor, and sensitivity (Saywitz et al ., ).…”

“…Research‐based child interviewing techniques typically include a phase designated for building rapport in the initial stages of a child interview (e.g., Lamb, Brown, Hershkowitz, Orbach & Esplin, ; Poole, ; Saywitz et al ., ). It is suggested that rapport building has a range of benefits, such as decreasing children’s reluctance and anxiety (Almerigogna, Ost, Bull & Ahehurst, ), building trust (Hershkowitz, ), providing an opportunity to practice answering questions (Brown, Lamb, Lewis, Pipe, Orbach & Wolfman, ), enabling the interviewer to assess the child’s cognitive and verbal abilities (Collins, Doherty‐Sneddon & Doherty, ), and potentially making children more resistant to suggestive influence by making the interviewer more approachable (Saywitz et al ., ). These benefits are, in turn, assumed to potentially help increase children’s willingness to disclose sensitive information, as well as to positively affect the completeness and accuracy of their accounts (e.g., Brown et al ., ; Hershkowitz, ; Lyon et al ., ; Roberts, Lamb & Sternberg, ; Sternberg, Lamb, Hershkowitz, et al ., ; Teoh & Lamb, ; Yi & Lamb, ).…”

“…These benefits are, in turn, assumed to potentially help increase children’s willingness to disclose sensitive information, as well as to positively affect the completeness and accuracy of their accounts (e.g., Brown et al ., ; Hershkowitz, ; Lyon et al ., ; Roberts, Lamb & Sternberg, ; Sternberg, Lamb, Hershkowitz, et al ., ; Teoh & Lamb, ; Yi & Lamb, ). Due to difficulties operationalizing and measuring the degree of experienced rapport during child interviews, scholars have primarily focused on measuring indirect effects such as the quality and quantity of information given by children (Saywitz et al ., ).…”

“…Children can be vital sources of information during criminal investigations and court proceedings. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in examining ways to help children overcome reluctance during investigative interviews through interviewer support and rapport building (e.g., Hershkowitz, ; Lyon, Wandrey, Ahern, Licht, Sim & Quas, ; Saywitz, Larson, Hobbs & Wells, ). Although research‐based interviewing guidelines emphasize the importance of building rapport early in an interview, few controlled experiments have examined strategies developed for this purpose in situations analogous to investigative child interviews (Goodman, Jones & McLeod, ; Saywitz et al ., ).…”

“…In recent years, there has been a growing interest in examining ways to help children overcome reluctance during investigative interviews through interviewer support and rapport building (e.g., Hershkowitz, ; Lyon, Wandrey, Ahern, Licht, Sim & Quas, ; Saywitz, Larson, Hobbs & Wells, ). Although research‐based interviewing guidelines emphasize the importance of building rapport early in an interview, few controlled experiments have examined strategies developed for this purpose in situations analogous to investigative child interviews (Goodman, Jones & McLeod, ; Saywitz et al ., ). In the present study, we aimed to contribute to this literature by investigating preschoolers’ disclosures of a secret as a function of two different rapport building strategies currently used in Scandinavian field settings (Langballe & Davik, ); verbal strategies such as asking about personally meaningful interests or, prop‐based strategies such as solving and describing a jigsaw puzzle.…”