Using a Human Figure Drawing to Elicit Information From Alleged Victims of Child Sexual Abuse.

Abstract

Ninety 4- to 13-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse were interviewed by police officers using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) investigative interview protocol, following which they were shown a human figure drawing and asked a series of questions. The drawing and associated questions elicited an average of 86 new forensically relevant details. They were especially productive with 4- to 7-year-olds, who provided an average of 95 additional details (27% of their total) after the drawing was introduced despite having previously "exhausted" their memories. Information elicited using the drawing may be less accurate, however, because recognition memory prompts predominated, so such drawings should only be introduced late in investigative interviews.

Forty Years of Forensic Interviewing of Children Suspected of Sexual Abuse, 1974–2014: Historical Benchmarks

“…The dynamic nature of the field is demonstrated in the constant changes and improvement in forensic interview models and structures. Especially helpful in the progress has been the research of the team advocating the NICHD Protocol [27,82,[84][85][86][87][93][94][95][96][97][98].…”

“…Nevertheless, the NICHD Protocol researchers have engaged in field research that has demonstrated the "value added" of a human figure drawing [93] and of asking the child to draw a picture of the abuse [94]. In both of these studies, the drawing activity was introduced after verbal inquiry and elicited substantial portions of new information.…”

Deterioration and recovery of DAP IQ scores in the repeated assessment of the Naglieri Draw-A-Person (DAP) test in 6- to 12-year-old children.

“…The validity of human figure drawing test scores is debated (Gresham, 1993;Motta, Little, & Tobin, 1993a, 1993b, but only with respect to behavioral risk assessment using particular features of the human figure as indicators of disturbed emotions (Aldridge et al, 2004;Bekhit, Thomas, & Jolley, 2005;Lange-Küttner, 1989;ter Laak, de Goede, Aleva, & van Rijswijk, 2005;Thomas & Jolley, 1998). In young children, drawing recognizable human figures requires the ability to follow simple response rules (Riggs, Jolley, & Simpson, 2013).…”

Observations From Canadian Practitioners About the Investigation and Prosecution of Crimes Involving Child and Adult Witnesses

“…Research has found that drawing per se is not a useful technique to use as a central investigative tool because of the increase in errors (Brown, Pipe, Lewis, Lamb, & Orbach, 2007). It has been recommended that, if drawing is used in interviews, it be used late in the interview when every attempt to verbally elicit reports has been made, and to combine it with open-ended questions (Aldridge, Lamb, Sternberg, Orbach, Esplin, & Bowler, 2004).…”