Developmentally Sensitive Forensic Interviewing of Preschool Children: Some Guidelines Drawn From Basic Psychological Research

• Author: Connie M. Tang
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016806291191
• Published date: 01 June 2006
• Date: 01 June 2006
• Subject Matter: Articles

132

Developmentally Sensitive Forensic

Interviewing of Preschool Children:

Some Guidelines Drawn From Basic

Psychological Research

Connie M. Tang

Richard Stockton College of New Jersey

Interviewing preschool children who are victims or witnesses of crime to ensure accuracy and

completeness of their recall is no easy task. Rising up to the challenge, a large number of

empirical psychological studies related to interviewing young children have been conducted

in the past decades. Most of these studies were applied research, simulating circumstances of

real forensic interviews. It is believed, however, that more basic research could also be infor-

mative. The present article thus selectively reviews more basic psychological research in the

areas of memory development, language development, and conceptual development as they

relate to the forensic interviewing of preschool children. Based on characteristics of preschool

children’s development in these areas, some useful guidelines are generated for forensic inter-

viewers. Recommendations for future research are also made.

Keywords: forensic interviewing; preschool children; child eyewitnesses; memory development;

language development; conceptual development

Historically, the U.S. court system has treated children’s testimony with suspicion.

Young children, in particular, are believed to be incompetent witnesses because of

concerns over their memory limitations, linguistic immaturity, and conceptual underdevel-

opment. Thanks to empirical research in the past decades showing that children, even

preschoolers, can be competent witnesses, children are now allowed to testify in court. To

examine how basic psychological research, like more applied research, can also inform

public policy in the forensic interviewing of preschool children, the present article will first

selectively review some basic psychological research on preschool children’s memory

development, language development, and conceptual development. Then, based on this

review, the article will generate some guidelines for forensic interviewers of preschool chil-

dren, such as police officers, attorneys, judges, and social workers. Finally, this article will

point out directions for future research.

There is an extremely large body of research on the forensic interviewing of children.

These research studies were mostly applied in nature, simulating various circumstances that

might occur in forensic settings. For example, during forensic interviewing, children can be

repeatedly or suggestively interviewed, and they can be interviewed by more or less sup-

portive interviewers. A large number of studies have thereby used the paradigm of expos-

ing children to the target event and then interviewing them repeatedly, suggestively, and

conducting the interviewing using interviewers of varied levels of support. These applied

studies have been very informative, shedding light on interviewing techniques that should

Criminal Justice Review

Volume 31 Number 2

June 2006 132-145

© 2006 Georgia State University

Research Foundation, Inc.

10.1177/0734016806291191

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