Forensic child interviewing technique with Dr David La Rooy

[@debbieweir1257]

Kleco kleco, for sharing your expertise, as a fourth year BSW student, this has been very useful.

[@sillysgood]

Extremely helpful and informative. Sent it to my attorney. Thanks for posting.

[@brigitteknapp5118]

It's nice to see what you do David. Very interesting!

[@rachelbos2306]

Great info!

[@Harlem55]

The problem with this is that any interview needs to establish the 5 W's- Who, What, When, Where, and (where applicable) Why. These are direct and succinct questions that don't call for this beat around the bush nonsense.The fact is that you can bet that on deposition (which happens early in a case), the Defense is going to lock the child into sworn testimony with a specific timeline of events. We may as well do this upfront. Simply put, if the child doesn't clearly understand and is unable to make accurate use of concepts like "in front / behind" or "before / after" then that child certianly shouldn't be allowed to testify under oath in legal proceedings because the testimony is too unreliable, Otherwise we need to show no mercy for a child caught lying under oath- If a four-year-old is of reasonably sound mind to testify in front of a jury, then a four-year-old is competent to serve every bit of ten years in prison for perjury, in my book. There needs to be the very real threat of severe legal consequences for children that lie and ruin peoples reputations and lives. If the child can't understand the nature of it being a crime to lie to the interviewer or to lie in court- then it would be my position that the interview and all facts gleaned from it should be summarily inadmissible as evidence as the rule and not the exception due to the extremely high likelihood of such being irreparably tainted. This is especially so considering the fact that eyewitness testimony has been scientifically shown to be quite unreliable in adults- yet alone children. For that reason, I don't jive with this "forensic interview of children" bull. Either conduct a standard interview or conduct no interview at all and get your evidence some other way. I'm not with this "special technique" business- because it's simply too much to try to sort out whether the interview was inappropriately manipulated, and I see it best to error in favor of the defense as the side of caution in keeping with the concept of a sound constitutional democratic republic.

[@rhondahoward8025]

"If a four-year-old is of reasonably sound mind to testify in front of a jury, then a four-year-old is competent to serve every bit of ten years in prison for perjury, in my book." Christ! You sound like you *really* hate kids.

[@Harlem55]

@@rhondahoward8025 I could have said mandatory death penalty without right to appeal in the style of Hitler But the point is that there needs to be a swift and extremely severe penalty any time someone destroys someone else's life with a lie.

[@rhondahoward8025]

@@Harlem55 I agree with that sentiment at least, especially when it comes to women who lie about sexual assault and the man's life is ruined. But when you're talking about a kid, you can have some common sense dude. Can a kid lie? Sure they can. Anyone can lie. That's why cross-examination exists. Children also have PARENTS who coach them to lie. Children also have BAD interviewers who don't ask them the right questions and then the child gives erroneous answers because of the ADULT interviewers. A child also does not understand consequences in the same way that an adult does. I can't believe I have to explain this to a grown person. That genuinely scares me. When will stupid adults like you understand that CHILDREN are not MINI-ADULTS? This is why child labor laws exist. This is why age of consent laws exist. Why don't we lock up a toddler for lying about taking the cookie out of the cookie jar while we're at it?

[@rhondahoward8025]

@@Harlem55 So obviously the common sense response is that if it comes out that the child might have lied in his testimony, throw the testimony out. Duh! But no, let's listen to ol' John Doe over here and start locking up toddlers!

[@rhondahoward8025]

And like I said, you have a serious hatred for children. I could literally feel the anger coming off of you.