Citation

Hunley BT, O'Donohue W. J. Police Crim. Psychol. 2023; 38(1): 38-54.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s11896-022-09558-y

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The forensic complainant interview is a unique opportunity to gather essential forensic information and is a central component of most sexual assault investigations. Past criticisms of these interviews have focused on inappropriate and harmful questioning, but there has been little attention to questions regarding the reliability, validity, cultural tailoring, and stakeholder acceptability of these. We conducted a literature review regarding all studies psychometrically investigating interview protocols used for sexual assault complainant interviews. Inclusion criteria required articles to include the investigation of an interview protocol used with adult sexual assault complainants or analog complainants. The literature search revealed six semi-structured protocols used for sexual assault interviews, all with very limited psychometric data, an inability to address some important forensic interview goals, and possible confirmation biases. This review also uncovered a trend to insert neuroscience into interview protocols despite problematic interpretations of this research and a lack of evidence of the usefulness of its inclusion. Unfortunately, these limitations indicate that currently there is no best-practice evidence-based sexual assault interview protocol. The importance of the problem of sexual assault necessitates a need to serve all those affected by recognizing the need for more rigorous development and testing of forensic interview protocols.

Language: en

Keywords

Clinical psychology; Forensic interviewing; Sexual assault; Trauma