Spotting Unreliable Child Interviews

Unfortunately, not all child interviews are created equal, and a biased or unskilled evaluator can shape or distort a child's recollection of family history by violating basic principles for maximizing reliability in child reports (Principles meant to help navigate the challenges of suggestibility, the vagaries of child memory, developmental limitations in language, etc.). If an attorney for a child or for a litigant can gain access to the underlying forensic file for inspection, an analysis of the session notes can offer reassurance that distorting dynamics were not present or suggest that the narrative offered by the child should be viewed as unreliable for court purposes.

Listed below are the ways of interacting with children in an assessment that can decrease the reliability of the child's responses. The principles for effective, heuristic interviewing along with the errors listed below are derived from the research literature that informs effective forensic assessment (e.g., Lamb, M. & Poole, D. (1998). Investigative interviews of children: A guide for helping professionals. Washington, DC: APA; Kuehnle, Greenberg & Gottlieb (2004). Incorporating the principles of scientifically based child interviews into family law cases. J Child Custody, 1(1), 97- 114).