FÅ BARN ATT BERÄTTA OM SIN VIKTIMISERING OCH HUR UTSAGORNA BEDÖMS -En kvalitativ studie om barnförhör

Abstract

Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate how investigative interviewers approach to get as much information as possible when interviewing children and how their statements are being judged, in order to make decisions that are deemed reliable for judicial proceedings. Therefore, the focus was to investigate how interviewers approach children to make them speak about their victimisation and how children’s statements are being judged by investigative interviewers and prosecutors. Method and data: The empirical material are consisting of 21 observations of investigative interviews conducted at The Children’s House in Gothenburg. Furthermore, five interviews were conducted with investigative interviewers and one interview was conducted with a prosecutor. The interviews were conducted face-to-face at different police stations and at the Procuratorate in Gothenburg. The majority of the interviewers and prosecutors were females aged 30-55 years. The interviewers had different educational backgrounds as some were police officers and some were civilian investigators with an education in behavioral science. In addition, the interviewers had varied experiences as some were new and still under training while some had been working for many years as child investigative interviewers. Results: It is important to establish a relationship in order to gain children’s trust. In addition, practitioner claimed that you shall be interested and curious, genuine, empathic and also be able to receive children’s stories. In order to gain information from children who have been repeatedly victimised, it was common with labeling an incident which may help children provide more specific details. An interesting finding was that interviewers who were civilian investigators, compared with police officers, want to receive feedback from colleagues in order to improve their interviewing skills and learn from each other. Further, they are more critical regarding the NICHD-protocol. For a statement to be judged as reliable, practitioner claimed that it shall be controlled for and confirmed with supportive evidence. To be judged as credible, practitioner claimed that children need to be able to describe the criminal offense in detail. Many claimed that there is a high workload and that it can be disheartening since many cases often are being closed and rarely lead to convictions. Therefore, it is of importance to further study the work situation of investigative interviewers of children and prosecutors. It is also of importance to further study how repeated victimisation can be prevented since abuse of children have increased and due to the large estimated number of unknown cases.