What approach should officers use when interviewing children to minimize trauma?

• A. Conduct lengthy interviews without breaks.
• B. Use age-appropriate language, involve trained child interview specialists when possible, keep sessions short, use nonleading questions, and maintain a calm environment.
• C. Demand memory recall in one session.
• D. Use highly technical forensic language to test memory.

Answer: (B)

When interviewing children in sexual assault cases, the priority is to protect the child while obtaining reliable information. The best approach is to use language that matches the child’s age and understanding, involve trained child interview specialists when possible who use validated, nonleading protocols, keep interview sessions short and allow breaks, and maintain a calm, child-friendly environment. This combination reduces trauma, lowers the risk of distress, and helps the child convey what happened more accurately.

Using age-appropriate language ensures the child can follow questions and respond without confusion. Trained specialists bring evidence-based techniques that minimize suggestibility and protect the child’s memory from being unintentionally shaped by the interviewer. Keeping sessions brief respects the child’s attention span and emotional capacity, reducing fatigue and retraumatization. Open-ended questions—like “What happened next?”—allow the child to describe events in their own words and provide information without being steered toward a particular answer. A calm environment helps the child feel safe, which supports disclosure and more reliable reporting.

Long interviews without breaks can overwhelm the child and impair recall. Asking for full recall in a single session can be distressing and lead to incomplete or distorted information. Using highly technical forensic language can confuse and intimidate, making communication harder and potentially affecting the child’s responses. The described approach best balances the need for trustworthy information with the child’s safety and well-being.