PBS9 Forensic Interviewing of Child Witnesses questions with correct answers

McMartin case - Answer Members of the McMartin family, who operated a preschool in California, were charged with numerous acts of sexual abuse of children in their care; after six years of the trial, no convictions were obtained and all charges were dropped; it was accused that the interviewing procedures and questioning of the children brought about false allegations. Cleveland case - Answer 121 children diagnosed as sexually abused using controversial reflex anal dilation techniques; ended up with most of the children being returned to their homes due to incorrect diagnoses. Goldman and Padayachi (2000) - Answer Incidence studies of child abuse are often unreliable because reports given by public institutions do not capture the full extent of the problem. There is wide variation in retrospective prevalence rates because of differences in defining child sexual abuse the type of sample used, design and measurement techniques. Studies conducted during a period when the problem of sexual abuse is widely publicized may elicit higher rates, because adults may be more willing to disclose. Surveys conducted prior to the 1970s report lower rates compared to more recent ones. Victims may not wish to report because of perceived stigma e.g. being accused of homosexuality. Lamb et al. (2009) - Answer The communicative experience of young children is restricted owing to their meta-linguistic capacity, as they will not be used to communicating with someone who has no prior knowledge of the events that they have experienced. Young children may not understand which details the interviewer would like to hear and so they may provide insufficiently detailed reports.