Interviewing Children

Interviewing Children is an accessible guide for forensic interviewers, clinicians, attorneys, and other professionals who rely on children’s testimony.

In this second edition, Poole and Dickinson present new thematic chapters on conversation habits, conventional content, and protocols for training.

Highlights include:

• sample dialogues that help flesh out and illustrate research-based recommendations for practice; 
• quick guides that synthesize core ideas and skills;
• "Principles to Practice" sections that answer questions about child interviewing; and
• a comprehensive appendix of learning activities readers can use to sharpen their interviewing skills.

The primary goal of all conversations with child witnesses is to help children describe events in their lives as completely, accurately, and unambiguously as they can. But common obstacles can make this task difficult, if not impossible. Interviewing Children offers a comprehensive look at the science of conversation with children in forensic contexts and provides the research-based tools and practices for navigating these obstacles.

Acknowledgments

Introduction: The Forensics Interviewing Skill Set

• Chapter 1. The Science of Interviewing Children
• Chapter 2. The Forensic Perspective
• Chapter 3. Conversational Habits
• Chapter 4. Conventional Content: Early Interview Phases 
• Chapter 5. Conventional Content: Case Issues Phases
• Chapter 6. Case-Specific Decisions and Exploration
• Chapter 7. Protocols and Interviewer Training

References

Appendix: Learning Activities

Index

About the Authors

Debra A. Poole, PhD, is an emeritus professor of psychology at Central Michigan University. After receiving a doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Iowa, her laboratory studied children’s eyewitness testimony and the impact of interviewing techniques on young witnesses’ reports. Her research, funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation, has explored the impact of repeated questioning, how children respond to different question forms, the influence of misinformation from parents on children’s event narratives, the risks and benefits of interview aids, and children’s eyewitness reports during tele-forensic interviews. She has worked with policy groups to craft interview protocols and has served on the editorial boards of Law & Human Behavior and Psychology, Public Policy, & Law.

Jason Dickinson, PhD, received a doctorate in legal psychology from Florida International University and is currently a professor of psychology at Montclair State University. As former director of the Robert D. McCormick Center for Child Advocacy and Policy, he oversaw the formation of the Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy, where he served as acting chair and directed development of the Master of Social Work program. He also served as the principal investigator for direct service and workforce training grants from New Jersey's Department of Children and Families.

His research on children’s eyewitness testimony, funded by the National Science Foundation, compares strategies for interviewing children and fresh complaint witnesses. He frequently consults with attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement, and the child protection community to help translate research findings into public policy.

This is a must read for scientists, practitioners, and other professionals interested in child forensic interviewing. Dickinson and Poole have managed to distill decades of complex scientific research on talking to children into comprehensible prose without losing the rigor of scientific inquiry.
—Deborah A. Connolly, Ph.D., LL.B., University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; Professor, Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University

In their new book, Interviewing Children: The Science of Conversation in Forensic Contexts, Deb Poole and Jason Dickinson provide a thoughtfully and thoroughly resourced, highly readable, and, above all, admirably practical guide for forensic interviewers striving to conduct evidence-informed interviews of children and adolescents in the legal system. Richly reflective of the authors’ expertise and mastery, the book should be read closely by every professional in the field.
—Michael E. Lamb, emeritus professor of psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, United Kingdom; editor of Psychology, Public Policy & Law; editor-in-chief of Applied Cognitive Psychology

Debra Poole and Jason Dickinson’s new edition of Interviewing Children is both practical and scientific. They do an admirable job of summarizing the burgeoning research on what makes children’s reports more productive and more accurate, which they then translate into clear guidance for practitioners. Anyone who works with children, either as an interviewer or as a researcher, will find this book invaluable.
—Thomas Lyon, Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Chair in Law and Psychology, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, Los Angeles, CA; JD, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA; PhD, Stanford (Psychology), Stanford, CA, United States

This book is a must-read for anyone who works with children. It offers an up-to-date overview of the science on child witness interviewing with a down-to-earth delivery style that will help professionals translate knowledge into practice.
—Martine Powell, Founding Director, Centre for Investigative Interviewing