Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Child Sexual Abuse Interview: An Exploratory Evaluation Of Recommended Interview Components And Tennessee Department Of Human Service Interviews, Kirstin L. Elliott

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

A direct consequence of the increasing number of reported cases of child sexual abuse is an influx of court cases involving allegations of sexual abuse. These allegations are accompanied by investigative interviews of the parties involved in the cases, including the alleged child victims. It is imperative that the investigative interviewing process be objective and reliable enough to be admissible in court in order for justice to be served in the best interests of the child through the due process of law. Cases such as the infamous McMartin trial (People v. Buckey, 1984), which ended in a hung jury after …