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An examination of police officers' beliefs about how children report abuse

journal contribution
posted on 2014-01-01, 00:00 authored by Carolyn Hughes-Scholes, Martine Powell, Stefanie SharmanStefanie Sharman
The aim of this study was to examine police officers’ beliefs about how children report abuse. Fifty-two officers read transcripts of nine interviews, which were conducted with actual children or adults playing the role of the child witness. Officers indicated whether they thought the interviews were with an actual child and justified their decisions. In-depth interviews were conducted to determine the reasons behind their decisions. Overall, officers’ decisions were no better than chance. When making these decisions, officers focused on three areas: whether they considered the child's language to be age-appropriate, whether they thought that the content of the statement was plausible, and whether they thought that the child had acted in a manner consistent with recollecting a traumatic event. The findings suggest that the characteristics officers rely on when evaluating children's statements of abuse are not reliable indicators. They suggest that officers’ beliefs about these statements need to be challenged during training to reduce the effects of those beliefs on their later decisions.

History

Journal

Psychiatry, psychology and law

Volume

21

Issue

1

Pagination

127 - 138

Publisher

Routledge

Location

Abingdon, Eng.

ISSN

1321-8719

eISSN

1934-1687

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2013, The Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law