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Forensic Interviews Regarding Child Sexual Abuse pp 197–218Cite as

Planning the Forensic Interview

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Abstract

The overarching goal of forensic interviewing is to seek the truth. Appropriate preinterview planning aids interviewers in accomplishing this goal. In the current chapter, we discuss and make specific recommendations regarding how interviewers should prepare for the child forensic interview. We highlight the potential benefits and risks of conducting interviews with prior knowledge of child and case specific information versus conducting “blind” interviews. We advocate for a hypothesis-testing approach to forensic interviewing and discuss the potential road blocks that preinterview knowledge may have on this process. We ultimately recommend that some child and case specific information is necessary to conduct proper developmentally appropriate forensic interviews. The chapter concludes by providing specific recommendations in preparing for the child forensic interview.

Keywords

  • Child sexual abuse
  • Interview planning
  • Preparation planning

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toledo, Mail Stop # 948, 2801 West Bancroft Street, Toledo, OH, 43606-3390, USA

    Monica Rohrabaugh & Kamala London

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Southern Indiana, 8600 University Blvd., Evansville, IN, 47712, USA

    Ashley K. Hall

Authors
  1. Monica Rohrabaugh
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  2. Kamala London
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  3. Ashley K. Hall
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Correspondence to Monica Rohrabaugh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nevada , Department of Psychology, RENO, Nevada, USA

    William T. O'Donohue

  2. Department of Psychology, Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri, USA

    Matthew Fanetti

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Rohrabaugh, M., London, K., Hall, A.K. (2016). Planning the Forensic Interview. In: O'Donohue, W., Fanetti, M. (eds) Forensic Interviews Regarding Child Sexual Abuse. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21097-1_11

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