What did you say? The effect of the use of an interpreter on the quality of investigative child interviews
Short description
The project intends to examine how and when interpreters are used during forensic child interviews in Sweden today, as well as investigate how the presence of an interpreter affects both the quality of the forensic child interview and the legal assessments of forensic child interviews. The project consists partly of a survey on Swedish child forensic interviewers' experiences conducting interpreted forensic child interviews and partly of reviews of legal documents where an interpreter was used during the forensic child interview.
Project description
Each year, a large number of crimes against children are reported to legal authorities. However, most of these crimes never exceed the preliminary investigation, as only about 20% of reported cases proceed to prosecution. An important explanation for the low prosecution rate lies in the quality and content of the forensic child interviews held during the preliminary investigation. As crimes against children often lack witnesses or other corroborative evidence, the child interview frequently constitutes the only, and thus decisive, evidence in the investigation.
A factor that can significantly affect the quality of the forensic child interview and the legal assessment of the interview is whether it is conducted with an interpreter. Unfortunately, there is currently a lack of research on the extent to which forensic child interviews are affected by the presence of an interpreter. Still, court cases where an interpreter has been used during child interviews, as well as a study with specialized child prosecutors, indicate that if the forensic child interview is conducted with an interpreter, it may endanger the child's right to be heard, make court's assessment of the child's statement more complex and that it is currently unclear to legal practitioners how an interpreter should be utilized during child interviews.
The present project, therefore, intends to investigate how forensic child interviews with interpreters are conducted in Sweden today, as well as how the interview quality and legal judgments are affected by the fact that the interview was interpreted. The project aims to close the significant knowledge gap regarding interpreted forensic child interviews by contributing with requested and valuable knowledge about how interpreted forensic child interviews should be conducted to ensure that the child's voice is heard. The goal is that the knowledge generated by the project will benefit children exposed to crime and the legal practitioners facing the task of planning, implementing, and making legal decisions about statements made during interpreted forensic child interviews.
Researchers
Emelie Ernberg
Sara Landström
Linnea Koponen
Charlotte Löfgren
Mikaela Magnusson
Key publications
Ernberg, E., Löfgren, C., Koponen, L., & Magnusson, M. (2023). Swedish Courts’ Evaluations of Interpreter-Mediated Child Investigative Interviews. Child maltreatment, 10775595231162072. https://doi.org/10.1177/10775595231162072
Ernberg, E., Magnusson, M., Koponen, L., & Landström, S. (2022). “It doesn't work at all, that's my experience”: Swedish forensic interviewers' views on interpreter-mediated child interviews. Child Abuse & Neglect, 127, 105540. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2022.105540
