Forensic Interviews Regarding Child Sexual Abuse ― A Guide to Evidence-based Practice

This wide-ranging volume combines the current findings and frontline knowledge working practitioners need to know about forensic interviewing of children in sexual abuse cases. Coverage begins with the basics: legal and ethical principles, interview planning and procedure, psychometric and cultural issues, pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Perspectives from a trial lawyer and a district attorney lend real-life details on criminal court procedure, interview procedure, legal standards, and what is expected of expert witnesses. Not only is developmental understanding of salient issues concerning children's competency and suggestibility offered here, but also vital guidance on the controversies surrounding false memories and untrue accusations.

Included in the coverage:

• Working with the multidisciplinary team.
• Childhood memory: an update from cognitive neuroscience.
• Disclosure failures: statistics, characteristics, and strategies to address them.
• Child abusers' threats and grooming techniques.
• Review of psychometrics of forensic interview protocols with children.
• Assessing the quality of forensic interviews with child witnesses.

Forensic Interviews Regarding Child Sexual Abuse brings a wealth of robust practical information to professionals working with children, including clinical and child psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers.

William T. O'Donohue is professor and chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada--Reno. For the past 16 years Dr. O'Donohue has directed a free clinic supported by a National Institute of Justice grant which assesses and treats sexually abused children. He regularly testifies as an expert witness in this area and has published numerous books and articles in peer-reviewed journals on adolescent development, child sexual abuse, and forensic psychology. Dr. O'Donohue was an advisor to the DSM-V Work Group on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association and is a member of the Nevada Attorney General's Victims of Crime Subcommittee.

Matthew Fanetti is a professor in the Department of Psychology and director of the Forensic Child Psychology Certification Program at Missouri State University. He was the principal investigator of an NIMH grant through which he developed a structured forensic interview for assessing child sexual abuse and he also serves as an expert witness in this area. Dr. Fanetti is a member of the Association for Psychological Science.