Child Forensic Interviewing:

Highlights

This bulletin consolidates the current knowledge of professionals from several
major forensic interview training programs on best practices for interviewing
children in cases of alleged abuse. The authors discuss the purpose of
the child forensic interview, provide historical context, review overall
considerations, and outline each stage of the interview in more detail.
Among the topics that the authors discuss are the following:

• No two children will relate their experiences in the same way or
  with the same level of detail and clarity. Individual characteristics,
  interviewer behavior, family relationships, community influences,
  and cultural and societal attitudes determine whether, when, and
  how they disclose abuse.
• The literature clearly explains the dangers of repeated questioning
  and duplicative interviews; however, some children require more
  time to become comfortable with the process and the interviewer.
• Encouraging children to give detailed responses early in the
  interview enhances their responses later on.
• Forensic interviewers should use open-ended questions and should
  allow for silence or hesitation without moving to more focused
  prompts too quickly. Although such questions may encourage
  greater detail, they may also elicit potentially erroneous responses if
  the child feels compelled to reach beyond his or her stored memory.

Newlin, C., Steele, L. C., Chamberlin, A., Anderson, J., Kenniston, J., Russell, A., Stewart, H., & Vaughan-Eden, V. (2015). Child forensic interviewing: Best practices. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. link