Description

Questioning techniques in forensic interviews make a critical contribution to the

amount and quality of children's testimony (Lamb, La Rooy, Malloy, & Katz, 2011). Best

practice recommendations advise that interviewers ask predominantly broad open-ended

prompts (invitations and cued-invitations), minimise focused (direct) and closed-ended

(option-posing) prompts, and avoid suggestive questions (Orbach & Pipe, 2011). Deviation

from these recommendations is common, and deterioration in interviewing practice over time

is typical unless interviewers received regular practice focused supervision and feedback

(Lamb, Sternberg, Orbach, Esplin, & Mitchell, 2002). However, interviewers' access to

supervision is often limited (La Rooy, Lamb, & Memon, 2011). Guided self-review may be

an effective method to complement traditional face-to-face supervision. This thesis

examined: 1) forensic interviewing practice with children in New Zealand, 2) factors that

influenced practice, 3) forensic interviewers' perceptions of supervision, and 4) the

effectiveness of a self-review tool designed to increase the use of invitations and cuedinvitations.