The Empirical Basis of the Forensic Evaluation Protocol

Faller (1996) divided the primary controversies in child sexual abuse interviews into four categories: "(a) the ability of the interviewer to conduct a competent interview, (b) the competence of the child to describe actual events, (c) interview structure and process and (d) decision making about the likelihood of sexual abuse" (p. 86). Each of these controversies were considered and incorporated into the forensic evaluation model.

The Ability of the Interviewer to Conduct a Competent Interview

Some detractors suggest that interviewers foster false allegations and use leading and suggestive practices (e.g., Ceci, Huffman, Smith, & Loftus, 1994). Others claim child interviewers are poorly trained and educated and have questionable motives for working in the field (e.g., Gardner, 1991). Although the actual motives of individuals are virtually impossible to validate scientifically, Gardner (1992) provided a criticism suggesting that interviewers may be abuse survivors working out their own issues.

A paucity of scientific data exists related to interviewers' previous abuse history. In a survey of 656 social workers, pediatricians, psychiatrists and psychologists, 17% of the respondents reported a history of sexual abuse (Jackson & Nuttall, 1993). Kelly (1990) surveyed 228 police officers, child protective workers and nurses who attended an educational program on child abuse, and found a 13% incidence of child sexual abuse history. In another study, Howe, Herzberger and Tennen (1988) surveyed mental health service providers at the masters and doctoral levels. Eight percent of their 101 respondents reported childhood sexual abuse.

Taken together, the results of the three survey studies suggest that sexual abuse survivors are not over represented in the identified professions. In fact, the percentages are generally below the statistical estimates of sexual abuse prevalence in the general population. Finkelhor (1994) has reported as a result of summarizing 19 prevalence studies that a solid, albeit possibly conservative, estimate based upon the available research of prevalence among sexual abuse histories is 20% for U.S. females and 5-10% for U.S. males. Comparisons of abuse prevalence in the survey research with Finkelhor's estimates suggest that sexual abuse survivors may actually avoid working in the child protection field.

All three studies (Howe et al., 1988; Jackson & Nuttall, 1993; Kelly, 1990) looked at clinicians' responses using an analog methodology. They used vignettes and asked subjects to make judgments about them. Jackson and Nuttall found that clinicians who reported childhood abuse history were more likely to believe abuse allegations than were colleagues who did not have an abuse history. Kelly found that subjects who reported childhood sexual abuse attributed more responsibility to the offender than did the non-victims. Howe et al. found that those reporting childhood abuse histories viewed the physically abusive parental acts depicted in the vignettes as more severe and more likely to be harmful than those with no reported history of abuse. None of these outcomes suggest that professionals are working out their own abuse issues, but they do suggest that abuse survivors may have increased empathy for the child and a firmer belief that abusers are in the wrong, orientations that are not inappropriate for those working in the field of child maltreatment.

The criticism that evaluators use leading and suggestive practices was directly addressed in the creation of the forensic evaluation protocol. All practices used within the protocol are research-based, and designed to obtain accurate information that can either support or not support allegations of sexual abuse. The tools and techniques are specifically designed to be non-leading and to be used in a developmentally appropriate fashion. A forensic evaluation is considered successful when it yields sufficient quality and quantity of information to be able to help validate or invalidate suspicions of abuse. According to Reed (1996), "[t]he primary purpose of investigations of suspected child maltreatment should be to arrive at valid conclusions about the 'truth' of the matter" (p. 104). This is an important orientation stressed to those evaluators trained on the use of the model. This orientation encourages critical evaluation of children's statements and counters the claims by some critics that abuse investigators are "looking for abuse under every rock."