Emotional Language Used by Victims of Alleged Sexual Abuse During Forensic Investigation

Katz, Carmit; Paddon, Misha Janet; Barnetz, Zion

doi:10.1080/10538712.2016.1137666

Cited by 19 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…Although emotional expression can be extremely beneficial, children, especially preschoolers and young children, rarely express their emotions spontaneously when describing FACILITATING THE EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS 5 past events including incidents of abuse in forensic investigations, and their expressions tend to be brief and sporadic (Katz, Paddon, & Barnetz, 2016;Westcott & Kynan, 2004). The common lack of emotional expressiveness in legal contexts is often viewed negatively (Castelli & Goodman, 2014;Lyon, Scuich, Choi, Handmaker, & Blank, 2012;Wessel, Eilertsen, Langnes, Magnussen, & Melinder, 2016;Wessel, Magnussen, & Melinder, 2013).…”

Section: Children's Emotional Expressiveness In Forensic Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitating the Expression of Emotions by Alleged Victims of Child Abuse During Investigative Interviews Using the Revised NICHD Protocol

et al. 2019

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Children’s testimony is often critical to the initiation of legal proceedings in abuse cases. In forensic interviews, the expression of emotions can powerfully enhance both the quality of children’s statements and perceptions that their statements are coherent and credible. However, children rarely express their emotions when reporting abusive events. The Revised The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Protocol (RP) was designed to emphasize socioemotional communication during forensic interviews and thus should be associated with more extensive and diverse expressions of emotions by alleged victims of abuse. The present study focused on forensic interviews (178 using the Revised and 100 using the Standard NICHD Protocol) with victims of physical child abuse whose allegations were corroborated using independent evidence. Detailed content coding showed that the RP was associated with the expression of more different emotions, more expression of abuse-related emotions, and more expression of emotions related to the interview context. Emotional expressiveness was associated with increased informativeness, and the association between the type of protocol and informativeness was fully mediated by emotional expressiveness. These results suggest that the Revised Protocol facilitates the expression of emotions by alleged victims of abuse in a way that enhances the value of children’s testimony in multiple ways.

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Section: Children's Emotional Expressiveness In Forensic Contextsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitating the Expression of Emotions by Alleged Victims of Child Abuse During Investigative Interviews Using the Revised NICHD Protocol

et al. 2019

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“…As expected, girls expressed their emotions nonverbally more than boys (for meta-analytic review see Chaplin & Aldao, 2013). However, gender was not significantly associated with the use of emotional language (as also reported by Ahern & Lyon, 2013;Sayfan et al, 2008), contradicting reports that girls tend to mention verbal emotions more often than boys do (Karni-Visel et al, 2019;Katz et al, 2016). Further research exploring the associations among gender, emotional valance (positive vs. negative), and type of emotion (internalizing vs. externalizing) may shed light on the differential effects of gender on types of emotional expression.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Nonverbal Emotions While Disclosing Child Abuse: The Role of Interviewer Support

et al. 2021

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Statements by alleged victims are important when child abuse is prosecuted; triers-of-fact often attend to nonverbal emotional expressions when evaluating those statements. This study examined the associations among interviewer supportiveness, children’s nonverbal emotions, and informativeness during 100 forensic interviews with alleged victims of child abuse. Raters coded the silent videotapes for children’s nonverbal emotional expressions while other raters coded the transcripts for interviewer support, children’s verbal emotions, and informativeness. Results showed that children’s nonverbal signals were more common than and preceded the verbal signs. Interviewer support was associated with children’s expressivity. When children expressed more nonverbal emotions, they were more responsive during the pre-substantive phases and more informative about the abuse. Nonverbal emotions partially mediated the association between support and informativeness. The findings underline the value of nonverbal emotional expression during forensic interviews and demonstrate how the interviewers’ supportive demeanor can facilitate children’s emotional displays and increase informativeness.

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“…Some practice guidelines (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, 2012) and researchers (Lyon et al, 2012;Newman & Roberts, 2014) have recommended that interviewers specifically ask children to describe their reactions to abuse and other aspects of the case. The NICHD structured protocol does not specifically recommend questions about children's subjective reactions (Katz, Paddon, & Barnetz, 2016); however, the revised NICHD protocol recommends that when children spontaneously describe subjective reactions, interviewers' ask for elaboration in order to show support for the child (Hershkowitz, Lamb, & Katz, 2014), and the state of Utah has implemented the protocol with the addition of recall questions about children's thoughts and feelings regarding the abuse (H. Stewart, personal communication, July 27, 2018).…”

Section: Sexual Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

The utility of direct questions in eliciting subjective content from children disclosing sexual abuse

Stolzenberg

Williams

McWilliams

et al. 2021

Child Abuse & Neglect

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Background: Children alleging sexual abuse rarely exhibit emotion when disclosing, but they may be able to describe their subjective reactions to abuse if asked. Objective: This study examined the extent to which different types of questions in child sexual abuse interviews elicited subjective content, namely emotional reactions, cognitive content, and physical sensations. Participants and Setting: The study included transcripts of 205 Child Advocacy Center interviews with 4-to 12-year-old children alleging sexual abuse. Methods: We coded questions for question type, distinguishing among invitations, wh-questions, yes/no and forced-choice questions, and suggestive questions. We coded both questions and answers for whether they referenced subjective content. Results: When questions did not reference subjective content, the most productive questions were invitations, though they elicited subjective content less than 5% of the time. When questions specifically referenced subjective content, children were likely to explicitly mention such content, particularly in response to "how feel" and "what think" questions. Children's responsiveness and productivity was enhanced by requests to elaborate on their subjective responses, and both emotional and physical reactions could be elicited. There was little evidence of non-responsiveness or counterintuitive reactions to abuse. Younger children were less likely than older children to provide subjective responses to questions that did not reference subjective content, but were no less likely to do so when asked questions with subjective content. Conclusions: Children, even young children, can be successfully encouraged to provide subjective content about sexual abuse, particularly when free recall questions are supplemented with "how feel" or "what think" questions.

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Emotional Language Used by Victims of Alleged Sexual Abuse During Forensic Investigation

Cited by 19 publications

References 47 publications

Facilitating the Expression of Emotions by Alleged Victims of Child Abuse During Investigative Interviews Using the Revised NICHD Protocol

Facilitating the Expression of Emotions by Alleged Victims of Child Abuse During Investigative Interviews Using the Revised NICHD Protocol

Nonverbal Emotions While Disclosing Child Abuse: The Role of Interviewer Support

The utility of direct questions in eliciting subjective content from children disclosing sexual abuse

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