1. Strategies for Gathering Details when Children Experience Repeated Abuse Andra K. Chamberlin
“Across the globe, a high proportion of child sexual abuse cases concern multiple abuses….. In many jurisdictions worldwide, successful prosecution of an offender charged with multiple incidents of perpetuating child sexual abuse depends upon the child victim’s ability to specify one or more individual acts of exploitation with respect to time, place, type of abuse, and other unique contextual details.”
Brubacher, Powell and Roberts, 2014

2. Multiple Episodes of Abuse
“Across the globe, a high proportion of child sexual abuse cases concern multiple abuses….. In many jurisdictions worldwide, successful prosecution of an offender charged with multiple incidents of perpetuating child sexual abuse depends upon the child victim’s ability to specify one or more individual acts of exploitation with respect to time, place, type of abuse, and other unique contextual details”
(Brubacher, Powell and Roberts, 2014, p. 325).

3. Single versus Multiple Events
Many children abused on multiple occasions
Difficult to recall explicit, individual occurrences of abuse from a set of repeated, similar events
Must have cognitive abilities to distinguish one event from other occurrences
Must be able to report details specific to singular occurrence
Must avoid confusing details across occurrences
Particularization may aid in investigation and be essential in charging
Child’s perceived credibility enhanced by providing organized episodic information -

4. Single versus Multiple Events
“Requesting a child to provide information beyond his or her cognitive abilities may result in misinformation and impair the credibility of the interview.”
(Brubacher et al., 2014, p. 328).

5. Single versus Multiple Events
Children’s ability to recall separate occurrence of repeated abuse affected by:
Developmental stage
Narrative style at home and within culture
Previous experience
Temperament
Exposure to trauma

6. Single versus Multiple Events
Wide variance in child’s ability to provide specific details for each occurrence of maltreatment in regards to:
Time frame
Location of event
Different acts experienced
Other unique contextual details

7. Episodic Memory
Episodic details – specifics of an individual occurrence of repeated events or of a singular event
Consciously re-experiencing individual event
Thinking about the “when” and “where”
May include sequence
Example – “We ate a Spiderman cake and played pin the tail on the donkey.”

8. Scripts (Generic Information)
Organized mental structures that describe typical event actions or objects – “what usually happens”
Thinking about what is known without retrieving specific details
Normal for adults and children to develop scripts when experiencing events that are similar to one another

9. Scripts (Generic Information)
Makes experiences predictable and allows for alternatives
“We go to the beach and play in the water”
And sometime x, sometimes y
“Sometimes we build sand castles”
“Sometimes we pick up seashells”

10. Scripts (Generic Information)
Recall of script/generic details easier than recall of specific episodes
Scripting becomes more common as the number of incidents increase
Reliance on scripts to aid memory increases over long delays

11. Scripts (Generic Information)
Natural recall of repeated events is typically mix of episodic and script (generic) information
Strengths
Challenges
Repetition
Rehearsal
Organization and structure
Resistant to suggestion for invariant details
May be more complete and better organized
Less confident about variable details
Accuracy about details but confusion about which incident
Inconsistencies about varied details between interviews

12. Episodic versus Script Memory
Age enhances both storage and retrieval of memory
Older children generally able to report more detailed, episodic information
Younger children have source monitoring issues
More likely to confuse details from one specific incident with incidents from similar experiences

13. Episodic versus Script Memory
Remembered information can be quite accurate and highly resistant to false suggestions

15. Episodic versus Script Memories
Episodic language:
“We sang ‘Happy Birthday’ and ate white cake.”
Generic language:
“You sing songs, you eat cake, you get presents.”
Event-specific details:
“We played duck duck goose.”
Generalized knowledge:
“You can play games.”
“I got a goodie bag with stars on it to take home.”
Conditionals: “If you were good, you might get a goodie bag.”
Specific sequences: “At the end, I opened my presents.”
Optionals: “You can open presents before you eat cake or after.”

16. Language
Script descriptions predominate children’s accounts when abuse is repeated
Scripts have linguistic cues (timeless presence, impersonal ‘you,’ more qualifiers)

17. Language Script prompts (present tense – he does…)
“Tell me what happens.” “You said he goes up and down. Then what happens?”
“What else happens, when you get home from school and your mom is gone?”
“Ok, you said he always makes you go into the bedroom. Tell me what happens when you go into the bedroom.”

18. Language Episodic prompts (past tense – he did…)
“Tell me what happened that time in the kitchen.”
“You said ‘he got on the bed’. Then what happened?”
“What else happened, the time mom came home and the door was locked?”
“Ok, you said there was a time he made you watch a movie with naked people. Tell me everything that happed that time he made you watch the movie.”

19. Language Children highly responsive to language style of interviewer
Episodic prompts yield episodic responses
Generic prompts yield generic responses
Children aware of and will change their level of specificity depending on interviewer
Reduces need to jump around between occurrences
If child initiates jump, use to refocus

20. Language
Difference between interviewer’s and child’s language may impact perception of credibility regardless of accuracy
Pay attention to language (yours and the child’s)
Reduces need to jump around between occurrences
If child initiates jump, use to refocus

21. Episodic Leads / Cues
Child and interviewer are assisted by labeling separate episodes
With age, children may generate “episodic leads” when providing over-all description of abuse
Specific details of a singular occurrence that can be used to discriminate between events

22. Episodic Labels
“Episodic label” is when interviewer uses child’s cues (episodic leads” to then label singular events

23. Episodic Leads and Labels
“Oh, but this one time I remember he just started, like, he had the zipper down on his jeans, and it was nearly my bedtime – just about 9, and the neighbor came at the door. He jumped up like, just, like “I wasn’t doing anything” and quickly went to – cause we were in the livingroom that’s right by the window at the front door, so he zipped up quickly and answered the door. When the neighbor went, he just did the things he normally does but a bit less – yeah, because it was, he had less time before mom got home.”
Identify leads – neighbor came at door

24. Episodic Leads and Labels
“Oh, but this one time I remember he just started, like, he had the zipper down on his jeans, and it was nearly my bedtime – just about 9, and the neighbor came at the door. He jumped up like, just, like “I wasn’t doing anything” and quickly went to – cause we were in the living room that’s right by the window at the front door, so he zipped up quickly and answered the door. When the neighbor went, he just did the things he normally does but a bit less – yeah, because it was, he had less time before mom got home.
Identify leads – neighbor came at door

25. Using Episodic Leads and Labels
“You said there was one time the neighbor came to the door. Tell me everything that happened the time the neighbor came to the door.”
“You said you were in the living room. Is there something else that ever happened in the living room?”
“Tell me about another time you remember something happening in the living room.”

26. Episodic Leads and Labels
“He always comes into my bedroom after mom goes to sleep. Sometimes he locks the doors. That’s when the really bad stuff happens. Mom was really sick one time and had to takes lots of medicines. I was really worried. He came in and said he needed a break and I should treat him nice. He tried to put his thing in my butt and it hurt really bad. I cried and cried and he told me to be a big girl.”
Identify leads – neighbor came at door

27. Episodic Leads and Labels
He always comes into my bedroom after mom goes to sleep. Sometimes he locks the doors. That’s when the really bad stuff happens. Mom was really sick one time and had to takes lots of medicines. I was really worried. He came in and said he needed a break and I should treat him nice. He tried to put his thing in my butt and it hurt really bad. I cried and cried and he told me to be a big girl.
Identify leads – neighbor came at door

28. Using Episodic Leads and Labels
“You said there was a time when your mom as really sick and your dad tried to put his thing in your butt. Tell me about that time.”
“You said there are times when he locks the doors and really bad stuff happens. Tell me about one time when your dad locked the doors.”

29. Episodic Leads and Labels
Before using the child’s words (episodic lead/cue) to label an event, ask if leads are unique
“You said he tried to put his thing in your butt?” “Was there ever another time when he tried to put his thing in your butt?”
If child responds affirmatively, then the phrase “The time he tried to put his thing in your butt” would not be used as an episodic label
Interviews should never change the wording of a child’s lead or use their own terms

30. Exploring Other Maltreatment
Complete discussion of individual episodes before moving on
Use child’s words to anchor each episode
Additional episodes can be asked about following exploration of child’s remembered episodes
Another time
Another location (somewhere else)
Another act (something else or something different)
Use example of put his finger in my gina while in bedroom, ask about another room. If it also happened living room, explore everything that happened in LR, and continue

31. Typical Mistakes When Gathering Episodic Information
Changing the wording of a label or using their own terms
Asking for particular incidents (first, last, worst, etc.)
Using recognition questions to elicit needed information (with no open-ended follow-up questions)
Influencing the information provided by the child

32. Recommendations in Pre-Substantive Stage
Providing child opportunity to practice retrieving and reporting detailed, episodic information regarding neutral events, in narrative form, fosters understanding of the amount and type of detail expected
Narrative practice focused on a specific episode provides more benefit than generic recounting of what usually happens
Once child describes one occurrence, ask about another time
Additional narrative practice of “another time” …. may help child understand different episodes of repeated event
Child may protest that each time is the same – should be encouraged to describe another time because, more than likely, they can find unique details in reported events
Want child to report unique details
Second occurrence should be given a label (based on child’s lead) to distinguish it from the first

33. Recommendations in Substantive State
Elicit generic/script description first (before episodic events)
Use child’s words
“Tell me everything about […]”
During script description, listen for child’s references to episodic leads
Writing short notes may help with verbal child

34. Recommendations in Substantive Stage
Adopt child’s language (do not re-label episodes)
Explore episodes referenced by child first
“Start at the beginning and tell me everything about the time that […]”

35. Recommendations in Substantive Stage
Visual timeline may be helpful for older children
Help children to reconstruct temporal information in memories
Depends on executive functioning and demands significant cognitive functioning

36. Recommendations in Substantive Stage
Note elements that may be used in investigation to locate episode in time
Adult witnesses (family, etc.)
Public records (school, housing, medical, etc.)

37. Recommendations in Substantive Stage
10 to 12 and up
“What do you remember about when this happened?”
Use open prompts
Do not push child to go past remembered information

41. THANK YOU