Interviewing children...

I enjoyed this article because I had to respond to a CSC (criminal sexual conduct) call involving minors. My FTO was in charge of the scene so he conducted the interiew. I just tried to comfort the two young females, and keep them talking by enlightening the situation with an open personality. I did get them to laugh a couple of times. I don't really care how silly I looked (LOL)...I just wanted them to relieve their stress, understand we were trying to help them, and keep them talking so we could get together a case. I know both my FTO and I wanted the guy off the street. The suspect is a repeat offender. In our jurisdiction (as probably in most jurisdictions), the officers conduct a preliminay interview to see if there is a case. If so, then the child or children are sent to a place called Care House to be interviewed by forensic interviewing specialists. The idea is to only interview and ask the young victims about the incident as few times as possible so they are not re-living the nightmare over and over again.

The young females we were dealing with were old enough to be able to communicate clearly, and had already been through sex education in school. We didn't have to try to establish definitions of what different types of words kids call their private parts, etc. When I read the article, I knew that as investigators you have to get down to a childs level. It was nice to be reminded of this. The article did a good job explaining the importance of keeping the interview brief, keeping the questions effective in bringing out the facts, and keeping the interview to the childs level.

We talked to two of the suspect's victims, and we found out later...he had victimized more. I am happy to report that our repeat sex offender my FTO and I picked up that night is currently serving time in prison for the incident we responded to.