The Forensic Interview in Child Sex Abuse Cases
Child molestation cases in Minnesota are objectively some of the most challenging cases to handle and defend against. One of the biggest reasons is based upon how society sees these kinds of cases and their alleged perpetrators. In an effort to address child sex abuse in Minnesota, authorities employ something called a forensic interview. The purpose of this article is to explain what a forensic interview is, how it is used in criminal courtrooms in molestation cases, and what makes it both reliable and questionable. If you are facing child molestation charges in Minnesota, this is a buzz saw like you have never experienced. As a result, make sure you sit down with an experienced Minnesota child molestation defense attorney. Even better, make sure they are a Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist.
“A forensic interview frequently becomes the foundation and most important piece of the State’s evidence.”
What is a Forensic Interview?
A forensic interview is a video taped interview of an alleged child victim by a specially trained Forensic Interviewer, frequently a nurse. The purpose of the interview is supposed to be used to collect information and to provide a treatment program for the alleged victim. However, in reality, the interview frequently has one central purpose: it becomes the foundation and most important piece of evidence used in a police investigation and ultimately the prosecution of a suspect.
The common approach to these kinds of interviews involves several phases:
a rapport-building phase - this includes basic introductions of the interview and the alleged victim, some rules of the interview, the importance of telling the truth and then maybe some practice with some general memories to make the point.
a substantive phase - in the ideal sense, the alleged victim should be giving a narrative of what happened to them without any prompting from the interview. However, it usually doesn’t work that way. Rather, the interviewer may ask a lot of open ended questions to get additional specifics and clarification without leading the person in any way. This should also include addressing contradictory information.
a closing phase - this phase should focus more on the investigator answering questions and referencing safety, education and what comes next rather than address the allegations.
How Forensics Interviews are used in Criminal Courtrooms?
The forensic interview frequently becomes the cornerstone of the prosecution once a trial begins. It is often introduced into evidence and is played from beginning to end for the jury. This may happen through the forensic interviewer or through the alleged victim themselves. When introduced through the forensic interviewer, it comes in under the shadow of science and objectivity. This will be addressed below. However, this is just the beginning. Frequently, during deliberations, when both prosecution and defense have argued their cases and the jury is trying to decide a verdict, they have the ability to come back and watch the same video again in its entirety. As a result, this evidence can take on a power that even direct evidence from a witness including the alleged victim cannot provide. The jury can watch it over and over again.
What Makes Forensic Interviews Both Reliable and Questionable?
Imagine a video camera peering down from the ceiling into a small room with a child sitting nervously on a couch with an Interviewer asking questions about sexual molestation. What could possibly go wrong? How could anybody not see this as objective, even scientific. Right? That being said, a lot has changed during these interviews over the last twenty years to increase their reliability and to acquire more objective and less tainted information.
What Makes Forensic Interviews Reliable?
The State has changed a lot of things to make forensic interviews more reliable including the general layout of the room as well as the training of the forensic interviewers and the types of questions and organization of the interview itself.
What does a Forensic Interview Room Look Like?
The police have changed the setting of these forensic interview rooms to look must less like interrogation rooms and instead are softer, frequently have warm colors and even child-sized furniture. The rooms will almost always have both audio and video capability so that the entire encounter will be taped. This is generally for the benefit of the jury. There is also an effort to avoid play or fantasy out of fear that that would encourage a more unreliable interview, especially with a younger child.
What Makes an Experienced Forensic Interviewer?
The forensic interviewer should receive extensive training as well as ongoing training to acquire reliable information and to be as objective as possible. In Minnesota, there was a time when allegations of child molestation would result in a police officer interview or multiple police officers interrogating the alleged victim. The literature is pretty well established that this can create false memories. Instead, now the effort is to get the alleged victim into what is called a Child Advocacy Center like Ramsey County Medical Center (RCMC) or Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC). Once here, they would sit down with a so-called forensic interviewer. This interview claims to have two goals: finding out the truth while at the same time protecting the alleged victim along the way.
In the end, the interview itself should be open ended, non-leading questions that allow the alleged victim to tell their story. In addition, the interviewer should remain calm, relaxed and not to react during the interview itself. The goal should always be objectivity rather than advocacy. In the end, this may be the singular interview as multiple interviews could result in false memories and increase the likelihood of misinformation.
What are the Limitations of Forensic Interviews?
Junk in, junk out. The problem with a forensic interview can happen long before the forensic interview itself even takes place. These problems can include involvement by the police, relatives, friends and more that continue to ask more and more questions, some likely leading along the way. This can all happen before the allege victim walks into a forensic interview. Contrast these experiences with those of the interview itself. This is what the interviewer will generally not do. And yet, this same interview frequently ignores the extensive conversations had with these other, frequently well intentioned and caring people. The forensic interviewer themselves may simply verify the damage caused by these prior communications if not exacerbate them by additional leading questions and behavior by the interviewer themselves without acknowledging it. This may be a result of biased training as well as a biased approach toward advocacy rather than objectivity.
“Make sure you have an experienced criminal defense attorney by your side.”
The search for the truth is always the ultimate goal in criminal cases. The State has the burden to prove beyond a reasonable that a crime was committed was committed in the first place and they will likely argue that the forensic interview was simply an objective and even scientific exam that allowed the “victim” to tell their story. Further, the taped forensic interview itself was then given to the jury so they could assess it for themselves, again and again. Of course, few things in life are this simple and child molestation cases are maybe the least simple of all criminal cases. This must always be kept in mind.
Jack Rice is a Board Certified Criminal Law Specialist, a former prosecutor and a former CIA Officer. He is a nationally recognized criminal defense attorney and Founder of Jack Rice Defense, a boutique criminal defense firm in St. Paul, Minnesota, contact Jack Rice Defense for a free confidential consultation or call 651-447-7650 or 612-227-1339.