The Utility of Direct Questions About Actions with the Hands in Child Forensic Interviews

Abstract

This study evaluated the utility of asking direct hands questions (“what did he do with his hands” and “what did you do with your hands”) during forensic interviews with 197 5- to 17-year-old children disclosing sexual abuse. Interviewers had been previously trained to engage children in narrative practice, to maximize their use of invitations and directives, and minimize their use of option-posing questions. We examined the extent to which direct hands questions elicited novel information about force, duress, resistance, and the nature of touch and body mechanics. Fifty- nine percent of children’s responses to the direct hands questions elicited novel details. Age, child productivity, and time spent on narrative practice exhibited few relations with novelty. The number of prior invitations was consistently negatively related to novelty; when more invitations were asked, the hands questions were less likely to elicit novel information. Direct questions about hands may supplement invitations in eliciting legally significant details about child sexual abuse.