Investigations of crimes against children

We have conducted research on various aspects of criminal investigations where children are involved. Here we provide a description of the four main areas of research: 1) Children's reliability and credibility, 2) Legal decision-making in investigations of crimes against children, 3) Child forensic interviews, and 4) Children's reports of sexual abuse. Our overall goal is that our research should be practically applicable to the legal system, we therefore conclude with a description of how we work to achieve this goal. 

Children's reliability and credibility 

From what age can children account for their own experiences?  Can we trust children's statements? These are some of the questions that arise in connection with criminal investigations and legal processes where children are involved. Through experimental studies, we have investigated children's ability to give reliable testimonies, and adults' assessments of children's reliability and credibility. Like international research, our studies show that children, given the right conditions, can give reliable statements from around the age of 3-4. But adults sometimes find it difficult to trust children's statements and they tend to look at, and be affected by, other aspects than the statements’ content when evaluating their testimony. One such aspect is the presentation format. As a rule of thumb, children below 15 do not testify in court in Sweden. Instead, the child forensic interviews held during the preliminary police investigation are recorded and presented as evidence in court. We have found in our research that children are positive about not having to testify in front of other adults. But unfortunately, adults tend to judge children's statements as less reliable and their behaviour as less believable if they see the child via a pre-recorded video compared to if they see the child live. In addition, adults can be influenced by the children’s emotional display. People tend to believe that children who show sadness and despair when they disclose abuse are more believable, compared to children who do not show these emotions. This is unfortunate as international studies show that victimized children do not necessarily show any particular emotions. Adults' stereotypical prejudices about how children should behave when they disclose abuse do not correspond with how children actually behave. 

Legal decision-making in investigations of crimes against children 

In Sweden, the responsibility for a preliminary investigation of alleged abuse against children rests with the prosecutor. It is the prosecutor who must make decisions about and, if so, when a child should be interviewed, which other possible witnesses should be heard, whether a suspect should be arrested or detained, and whether the arrest warrant should be invoked. It is also the prosecutor who decides whether the case should proceed to prosecution or not. In our research, we have examined prosecution decisions and found that prosecutors working with alleged sexual crimes against preschool children face great and difficult challenges. In surveys and interviews, experienced child prosecutors have highlighted that suspected sexual crimes against young children are often difficult to investigate and prosecute due to a lack of supporting evidence and difficulties gaining information from preschool aged children. Interviewing young children and assessing their statements entails great difficulties, and the child forensic interview is therefore seen as decisive for the success of the investigation. By examining differences between prosecuted and discontinued cases of sexual offenses against preschool aged children, we have found that prosecuted cases often contain forensic evidence (documentation, DNA evidence, injuries) or a confession from the suspect, all of which are absent in discontinued cases. In addition, we have found that cases are more often discontinued if there is an ongoing custody dispute between the child's parents, if the child was placed in a family home by social services before the criminal report was made, or if the report concerns a boy. Boys and younger children are interviewed less often during the investigation compared to girls and older children, which is worrying. In an ongoing PhD project about possible gender differences in child sexual abuse victims' possibilities to advance within the legal system this is investigated further. 

Child forensic interviews 

Decades of work in psychology has shown that children, from about three to four years of age, can be reliable as witnesses and talk about self-perceived events, given the right conditions. The right conditions in this context mean, among other things, that the person who ask the child about what happened essentially let the child give their statement in response to open-ended questions, without any influence of leading and suggestive questioning. The child interviewer also needs to establish rapport to support children who talk about violence. Part of our research involves reviewing child forensic interviews to ensure that they adhere to current evidence-based guidelines. Swedish forensic child interviewers typically receive training in a research based and structured NICHD protocol. The acronym NICHD stands for the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the protocol is based on two basic principles: i) to help children to tell through supportive and age-appropriate techniques, and ii) to minimize the risk of suggestive influence by mainly using open and non-leading question types. 

Through review of legal cases and a series of experimental studies, we have found that the current interview method is not adapted for children in need of language support. This means that children with communication difficulties, including younger pre-schoolers, children with Swedish as a second language and children with cognitive impairments, find it very difficult to give evidence during the child forensic interviews. Part of our research therefore concerns how child forensic interviewers should be able to hear these particularly vulnerable children and how we can ensure that Sweden lives up to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that all children, regardless of age, maturity or functional capacity, should be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child. To date, we have two ongoing research projects regarding child forensic interviewing. One of these projects concerns the use of interpreters in investigative child interviews. The second project concerns the use of picture support. 

Children's reports of sexual abuse 

Many children who have experienced sexual abuse find talk about it difficult. Our research and international studies have pointed out that many children who have been abused delay their disclosure, and some children do not disclose the abuse at all. Since children's statements often constitute the single most important piece of evidence in cases of sexual crimes against children, we have investigated factors that affect children's opportunities to disclose their abusive experiences. 

By reviewing legal cases, we have found that preschool aged children who have been sexually abused by a relative tend to wait longer before telling someone about what they have been through, compared to children who have been victimized by an outsider. Children who have been abused by relatives also avoid talking about the abuse in police interviews to a greater extent. Our research has shown that there is a gap between what children remember and what they tell in the police interview. The fact that children have difficulties talking about abuse should not be interpreted as the children not remembering the acts. On the contrary, memory research shows that children, like adults, tend to remember potentially traumatic experiences well, and usually better than other everyday events. What we have found in our research are several obstacles that can make it difficult for children who have been abused by relatives to talk about their experiences. Children who are worried about the possible consequences of a disclosure, feel loyalty towards the perpetrator, are afraid that their disclosure will break up the family, or experience feelings of shame and guilt about what happened, often find it very difficult to disclose their abusive experiences. And these obstacles can result in disclosure delay, withdraw or not disclosing at all. If the children also have been instructed to keep the abuse a secret or if they have experienced threats or other pressure from the perpetrator, this can further complicate or prevent the disclosure. 

Part of our research on this theme has also been focusing on investigating and questioning the view that online sexual abuses are less serious than physical abuse. By reviewing court cases, we have found that online abuse can be of an extremely serious and offensive nature, and by interviewing victims, we have been able to demonstrate that online abuse can cause great suffering for the children who are affected. We therefore argue that sexual crimes against children should be seen as potentially traumatizing events with the risk of creating great suffering, regardless of whether the abuse took place online or offline. In addition, when it comes to online sexual crimes, there are factors that can further complicate the impact of the abuse. Specifically, there is no “safezone” - the perpetrator can contact the child around the clock, the fear that pictures or videos of the abuse will be spread, and extended feelings of guilt and shame for having been forced to take an active role in the abusive acts. 

Overarching goals 

According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, all children are equally valuable and have the same rights. All children have the right to survive and develop, the child's best interest must always come first and all children have the right to express their opinion and participate in decisions that affect them. In our recent research projects that affect children, we strive to comply with the Convention on the Rights of the Child by increasing children's influence and participation in the research process. We collect and consider children's opinions throughout the process, from study design and methodology, to how we can interpret and disseminate the results from the project. 

The aim of our research is for it to be practically applicable within the legal system. Our goal is to ensure that all children have the right to express themselves in legal processes and the opportunity to give testimony of high legal quality. In order to ensure that every child gets the opportunity to give a free account about their alleged abusive experiences, the person who talks to the child needs to adhere to best practice child forensic interviewing methodology and, at the same time, be flexible and adapt the interview to match the child's age, maturity, individual conditions and communication skills. This is challenging and we therefore actively collaborate with, and educate, the social service, the Police Agency, and the Public Prosecutor's Office. We also provide expert opinions in both court and in the media.