Gould School of Law & Department of Psychology, University of Southern California.
Law Hum Behav. 2012 Oct;36(5):448-57. doi: 10.1037/h0093986. Epub 2012 Feb 6.
In child sexual abuse cases, the victim's testimony is essential, because the victim and the perpetrator tend to be the only eyewitnesses to the crime. A potentially important component of an abuse report is the child's subjective reactions to the abuse. Attorneys may ask suggestive questions or avoid questioning children about their reactions, assuming that children, given their immaturity and reluctance, are incapable of articulation. We hypothesized that How questions referencing reactions to abuse (e.g., "how did you feel") would increase the productivity of children's descriptions of abuse reactions. Two studies compared the extent to which children provided evaluative content, defined as descriptions of emotional, cognitive, and physical reactions, in response to different question-types, including How questions, Wh- questions, Option-posing questions (yes-no or forced-choice), and Suggestive questions. The first study examined children's testimony (ages 5-18) in 80 felony child sexual abuse cases. How questions were more productive yet the least prevalent, and Option-posing and Suggestive questions were less productive but the most common. The second study examined interview transcripts of 61 children (ages 6-12) suspected of being abused, in which children were systematically asked How questions regarding their reactions to abuse, thus controlling for the possibility that in the first study, attorneys selectively asked How questions of more articulate children. Again, How questions were most productive in eliciting evaluative content. The results suggest that interviewers and attorneys interested in eliciting evaluative reactions should ask children "how did you feel?" rather than more direct or suggestive questions.
在儿童性虐待案件中，受害者的证言至关重要，因为受害者和施害者往往是犯罪的唯一目击者。虐待报告中一个潜在的重要组成部分是儿童对虐待的主观反应。律师可能会提出暗示性问题或避免询问儿童对其反应的看法，因为他们认为，鉴于儿童的不成熟和不情愿，他们无法表达自己。我们假设，询问与虐待反应有关的 How 问题（例如，“你感觉如何”）会增加儿童描述虐待反应的数量。两项研究比较了不同问题类型下儿童提供评价性内容（即描述情感、认知和身体反应）的程度，这些问题类型包括 How 问题、Wh-问题、选项提问（是/否或强制选择）和暗示性问题。第一项研究考察了 80 起重罪儿童性虐待案件中 5-18 岁儿童的证言。How 问题更具成效，但最不常见，而选项提问和暗示性问题则成效较低，但最常见。第二项研究考察了 61 名（6-12 岁）涉嫌被虐待的儿童的访谈记录，系统地向他们询问了有关其对虐待反应的 How 问题，从而控制了在第一项研究中，律师选择性地向更善于表达的儿童提出 How 问题的可能性。同样，How 问题在引出评价性内容方面最具成效。研究结果表明，有兴趣引出评价性反应的采访者和律师应该询问儿童“你感觉如何？”，而不是更直接或暗示性的问题。
