82. Increasing true reports without increasing false reports: Best practice interviewing methods and open-ended wh- questions.
Year: 2021
Type: preprint
Abstract: A consensus has emerged among forensic interviewers that narrative practice rapport building, introducing the allegation with a “why” question about the reason for the interview, and eliciting allegation details with invitations (broad free recall questions) constitute best practice. These methods are favored because they increase true reports with little risk of increasing false reports. We discuss how interviewers can maintain this balance with open-ended wh- questions designed to elicit details often missing from children’s narratives. Conversely, we show that recognition questions (including yes/no and forced-choice questions) pose risks of impairing children’s productivity and accuracy, and discuss how future research can find ways of replacing recognition questions with open-ended wh- questions.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Authors: Thomas D. Lyon, Hayden Henderson
Institution: University of Southern California
Language: English
Subfield: Social Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3119588780