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FORENSIC INTERVIEWING OF CHILDREN IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA (The Child Interview Unit, Subiaco, Western Australia - Everything you wanted to know!)

Since we opened our doors in June 2004 we have forensically interviewed over 1500 children. The Child Interview Unit makes no distinction between Intra and Extra familial abuse and 66% of all interviews result in sufficient particularisation and corroboration for criminal charges to be laid.

From the initial 8 interviewers trained for the Perth Child Interview Unit we have grown to 12 FTE based in Perth and we have trained over 130 Specialist Child Interviewers who are able to offer forensic interviewing across the state of Western Australia.

The Specialist Child Interviewer Training is another first for the Child Interview Unit and the Department for Community Development (DCD). The two week course is undertaken with candidates from both DCD and Western Australia Police (WAPOL). The training is a competency based with three assessable components and upon successful completion candidates hold prescribed interviewer status under the Criminal Law Amendment (Sexual Assault and Other Matters) Act 2004.

The interview model that we have developed has been adopted by the Northern Territories and has been recommended to the Australian Law Reform Commission as the model for use Australia wide by Dr Caroline Taylor

Specialist Child Interviewing

The scope of the Child Interview Unit (CIU) is to interview children who have experienced sexual or physical abuse. The safety and wellbeing of the child is the paramount concern of the Specialist Child Interviewers (SCI’s). Interviews will be conducted in an anti-discriminatory, culturally aware, developmentally sensitive, objective and legally defensible manner. The interview techniques used are child centred with the purpose of determining truth and where offences are disclosed the SCI’s will strive to maximise the attainment of admissible evidence.

Specialist Child Interviews will follow the guidelines of the WA Four Phase Forensic Interview. This method allows for the information to be obtained from a child in a way that obtains the truth, considers a child’s developmental age and challenges inconsistencies in information given. Any electronically recorded interview serves three primary purposes:

 Obtaining the truth about what has happened;  Gathering evidence for use in criminal proceedings and  the examination in chief of the child witness

In addition, any relevant information gained during the interview can also be used to promote the child’s welfare, and in some cases, the welfare of other children. Some information may be common to both purposes, but there will be issues specific to each to be considered at the planning stage. The electronically recorded interview may additionally serve a useful purpose in informing any subsequent Children’s Court, Family Court or disciplinary proceedings against adult carers (eg. in residential institutions).

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE FOR SPECIALIST CHILD INTERVIEWERS

The purpose of Specialist Child Interviewing is to interview children who have experienced sexual abuse and physical abuse. The safety and wellbeing of the child is the paramount concern of the Specialist Child Interviewers (SCIs). The purpose of the SCIs is to interview all children in an anti-discriminatory, culturally aware, developmentally sensitive, objective and legally defensible manner. The interview techniques used are child centred with the purpose of determining truth and where offences are disclosed the SCIs will strive to maximise the attainment of admissible evidence

History and Development of the Four Phase Forensic Interview Model for the Electronic Recording of Child Witnesses in WA

In February 2002, the Family and Children’s Services, Western Australia Police Service Joint Response to Child Abuse Group sent a Task Force (the Video Recording of Children’s Interviews Task Force - VRoCI), on a fact finding mission to examine the differing models of Video Taping Children’s Interviews in Australia and New Zealand. The Task Force was given the following mission statement:

To identify the advantages/disadvantages of using video-recording equipment for the purpose of recording the interview of a child suspected of having been physically or sexually abused. Ensure that the best interests of the child are paramount at all times.

As a result of examining models in New Zealand and Australia it was the unanimous view of the Task Force that:

1. Video taping of children’s interviews should be implemented in Western Australia provided that appropriate legislation is established.

2. The skill of interviewing children is complex and is best provided by full time specialist staff rather than by staff working generically as social workers or police officers.

3. The New Zealand Model would be recommended for implementation in WA.

In October 2003 a meeting of Senior Officers whose attendees were Mr Ken Monson, Ms Cheryl Barnett and Mr Garfield Prowse from the Department for Community Development and Inspector Kevin Looby and Senior Sergeant John Adams of the Western Australia Police Service was held at DCD Central Office. A review of the New Zealand Model was requested at this meeting as it was based on the English Memorandum of Good Practice (1992) which was replaced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2001. Garfield Prowse undertook this review and was asked to present the findings in December 2003 to both the Senior Officers present at the October meeting and the Director Public PProsecutions (DPP) represented by Mr Paul Yovich and Princess Margaret Hospital who were represented by Ms Amy Viera.

The review looked at the advantages and disadvantages of the NZ model against world’s best practice. It was unanimously agreed that Western Australia would utilise the Four Phase Forensic Interview (adapted for the uniqueness of WA conditions) for the electronic recording of child interviews and some vulnerable adults.

The Four Phase Forensic Model being adopted in WA can trace it’s origins to the seminal work in this field “Poole, D.A. & Lamb, M.E. (1998). The WA Four Phase Forensic Interview Model was initially developed by Garfield Prowse and has combined elements of forensic interviewing models from the USA, England, and other European countries. This combination has allowed the creation of a model of interviewing that will meet the demands of our geographically and culturally diverse state whilst remaining forensically sound.

The WA Four Phase Forensic Interview Model

Phase 1 Rapport (Rapport has 7 parts and can take up to 20 minutes)

a) Formal Introduction For the purpose of the recording the lead interviewer will state who is in the room, the child’s full name and date of birth, the location of the interview, the time and date of the interview and the camera and microphone locations.

b) Informal introduction The interviewers advise the child their names and establish what name the child wants to be called by. The interviewers briefly explain their role.

c) Truth and Lies The interviewer will use the examples approved by the DPP.

d) Ground Rules

The following ground rules are covered by the interviewers who will usually ‘test’ a child’s understanding of two of them. The ground rules are: • Always tell the truth – everybody in the room will tell the truth • Don’t know – it’s ok if the child doesn’t know the answer to a question • Don’t understand – if the child doesn’t understand the question they can say so • Don’t remember – it’s ok not to remember, don’t make things up • Using rude words – it’s ok to use any words you like in the interview • Correct me – if the interviewer makes a mistake the child should correct them • Repeat a question – the interviewer may ask the same question twice • Note taking – the interviewers will make notes during the interview • Take a break – it’s ok to take breaks

e) Developmental Assessment

A developmental assessment is undertaken on all children between the ages of 4 – 12 years inclusive. A basic assessment will be the identification of three colours and identification of basic concepts such as in and out and on top and underneath. This assessment is frequently undertaken with coloured cups.

f) Rapport Building

Here the interviewer is getting to know the child a little bit and helping the child to relax. The interviewers will also learn more about the child’s communication skills and degree of understanding of vocabulary. This will enable the interviewers to adjust their language and complexity of their questions.

g) Free Narrative Techniques Rehearsal

The Free Narrative Techniques Rehearsal (FNTR) is designed for interviewers to practice the open-ended investigative strategies and techniques used in the next phase of the interview. The child will be practicing the type of response expected and the level of detail required. The FNTR topic is usually identified by the child in the rapport phase e.g. a happy event, and the child will be asked to tell the interviewers all about the happy event in as much detail as possible

Phase Two: Free Narrative

The aim of the Free Narrative phase is to secure a full and comprehensive account from the child of an alleged incident in the child’s own words. The default question to elicit the child’s free narrative is “tell me why you are here today”. The child will not be interrupted to ask for additional details or to clarify ambiguities during the free narrative account. The Free Narrative elicits an account from the child using free recall memory which is universally regarded as the most accurate form of memory retrieval. .At the end of the child’s free narrative the lead interviewer will summarise what the child has said back to the child to check for accuracy and understanding of what the child has said

Phase Three: Clarification:

The child’s free narrative will be broken down into elements (called topics) and these will be explored in their entirety in the order the child gave them in the free narrative account. Exploration of a topic box includes clarification, particularisation, corroboration and source monitoring. The lead interviewer will ask questions first, followed by the second interviewer who may also have questions from the monitoring detective. At the end of each topic the lead interviewer summarises what the child has said and checks for accuracy of summary from the child. Once all the topic boxes have been completed the child is asked if the Person of Interest (POI) has done anything similar to them and if any one else has done anything similar to them.

Phase Four: Closure

The closure phase of the interview includes undertaking a protective assessment on the child to establish how they feel and if they are safe to return where they have come from. It also affords the child the opportunity to ask the interviewers any questions they may have about what happens next etc. The closure phase also allows the interviewer to take the child back to a safe place (usually the happy event used in the Free Narrative Techniques Rehearsal)