A good day’s work and then a good night’s sleep. It sounds simple, but the sometimes we find that we intuitively know an answer to improving a complicated process before we ever put it to practice. Of course then we need to put it to practice. This is exactly what one law enforcement agency has done when they decided to being putting full sleep cycles between interviews with child victims.
It was in Cache Country where a new kind of interview has been taking place among child victims. What is it that interviewers are doing? And how is it working?
Terryl Warner was quoted in a recent article New Interview System with Child Victims Proving Useful to explain more:
Law enforcement is using a method where we give people a chance to have a sleep cycle break, Warner explained. They’ll be interviewed, they’ll get a sleep cycle break, then get interviewed again…
We’re finding that is absolutely critical for trust between a law enforcement officer and the victim, as well as helping us on the prosecution side.
We are eager to see how this trend grows and unpack more with you as we learn about the technique being used elsewhere.
We understand how important it is to approach interviewing in a way that meets children’s needs when it comes to child crime. This is just one of the reasons why we are so passionate about ensuring we do all we can to advocate for children and the best possible setting and environment for them to undergo interviews.
From the Child’s View
From the child (victim) standpoint, if we have a high quality interview, it may help your case get resolved without having that child come into court and testify and go through the process all over again. In addition, it adds to the credibility of the case and documents exactly how the child disclosed, as well as the types of interview questions that were used.
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