Interviewing Child Victims: Police and Social Work Investigations of Child Sexual Abuse

Abstract

The article examines the conduct of videotaped interviews between suspected victims of child sexual abuse and police officers and social workers investigating the allegation. It assesses the present conduct of the interviews and the place of children's testimony in contemporary law, and is illustrated by several extracts from transcripts of interviews with suspected child victims. In a field dominated by psychological approaches to interview design and analysis, it is argued that sociology has a worthwhile contribution to make, with clear consequences for investigators' understandings of children's evidence.