Author: Swerdlow-Freed Psychology

The concept of grooming is often raised in trials involving allegations of child sexual abuse. While the term broadly refers to manipulating children and their environment, it lacks an agreed upon definition (Craven, Brown & Gilchrist, 2006). One review (Bennett & O’Donohue 2014) identified 12 studies that each used its own definition of grooming.

When young children experience an event, what do they pay attention to? What is noticed the most and what is paid the least attention?

Allegations of child physical or child sexual abuse can be impacted by delay at three separate points in time: between the first incident of abuse and its disclosure, between disclosure and the forensic interview, and between the forensic interview and the child’s testimony at trial.

The Memory-Accuracy-Detail belief is based on the idea that the more details an eyewitness reports, the more accurate is their testimony. A companion belief is that the more vivid a memory is, the more accurate it must be.

Over the past three decades dozens of research studies have identified the optimal forensic interview techniques to use when questioning children about allegations of physical and sexual abuse. These studies have culminated in a set of best-practices which, if carefully followed, can assist children to provide reliable narrative accounts of their experiences.