Prioritizing Child Well-being: Techniques and Challenges in Child Interrogations
(2024) CCRM20 20241Sociology
- Abstract
- There are around 200 000 children being witnessed and/or being exposed to domestic violence in Sweden. However, there is a low amount that leads to any sort of conviction. This study addresses challenges that child interrogators face during interrogations with children. How they navigate the challenges together with the revised NICHD protocol and how the interrogators discuss the emotional demands of their role is also addressed since there is a noticeable research gap of child interrogators' experiences. The research involved seven interviews with child interrogators from the police. Document analysis was employed to analyze the revised NICHD protocol, while thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews. Ethical considerations were... (More)
- There are around 200 000 children being witnessed and/or being exposed to domestic violence in Sweden. However, there is a low amount that leads to any sort of conviction. This study addresses challenges that child interrogators face during interrogations with children. How they navigate the challenges together with the revised NICHD protocol and how the interrogators discuss the emotional demands of their role is also addressed since there is a noticeable research gap of child interrogators' experiences. The research involved seven interviews with child interrogators from the police. Document analysis was employed to analyze the revised NICHD protocol, while thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews. Ethical considerations were included for the interviewees were the study's purpose and anonymity was of importance. Hochschild’s theory of emotional labor has been used to understand the emotional challenges faced by child interrogators and potential consequences of their emotional labor in their job. Symbolic interactionism provided insight into the interaction between interrogators and children. The thesis highlights several challenges faced by child interrogators, such as reluctance, avoiding leading questions, and ensuring the child's well-being. They address these challenges through NICHD protocol recommendations, experience, and feedback. Despite their dedication, the emotional toll on interrogators is significant, highlighting the need for better emotional support. The study highlights that interrogators prioritize the well-being of the child, before focusing on conviction or solving the crime. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- Around 200 000 children in Sweden live in homes where various types of violence occur, where violence occurs either to themselves or parents or siblings. In Sweden, violence against children is classified as a big societal issue. There are several psychological impacts on children who witness or are exposed to violence, such as aggressiveness, depression, anxiety, and PTSD which also can lead to long-term psychological and social problems, such as depression, alcoholism and trauma. Despite this severe issue, very few cases lead to convictions out of the ones that get reported.
This thesis aimed to investigate the challenges child interrogators face during interviews with children who witness or experience domestic violence and how they... (More) - Around 200 000 children in Sweden live in homes where various types of violence occur, where violence occurs either to themselves or parents or siblings. In Sweden, violence against children is classified as a big societal issue. There are several psychological impacts on children who witness or are exposed to violence, such as aggressiveness, depression, anxiety, and PTSD which also can lead to long-term psychological and social problems, such as depression, alcoholism and trauma. Despite this severe issue, very few cases lead to convictions out of the ones that get reported.
This thesis aimed to investigate the challenges child interrogators face during interviews with children who witness or experience domestic violence and how they tackle these issues using the NICHD protocol. Through interviews with child interrogators I have found several challenges they encounter. The findings revealed numerous challenges such as collecting information from reluctant children, many things they have to think about at the same time such as avoiding leading questions, listening to the child’s needs, adjusting to the child's language but at the same time building trust and showing support. By the use of training, feedback and the techniques from the revised NICHD protocol they can usually address the challenges. The study also highlights that child’s well being is the most important for child interrogators and prioritizes that over solving the crime. However, the study found that child interrogators face emotional challenges with a lack of support from the organization on the emotional toll these cases have on child interrogators. The findings are important, because previous research has focused on how to do interrogations with children better and for them to be able to disclose their abuse. However, research and organizations have forgotten about the emotions of the ones actually handling these cases and the consequences of that.
The consequences of the emotions of child interrogators can affect the child interrogations negatively. With improved support for the child interrogators, it can ultimately create a better environment for everyone involved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9172493
- author
- Laréus, Josefine LU
- supervisor
-
- Erik Hannerz LU
- organization
- course
- CCRM20 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Child interrogation, Police, NICHD protocol, Abuse, Children, Emotional labor, Interrogation, Interview
- language
- English
- id
- 9172493
- date added to LUP
- 2024-08-26 16:57:11
- date last changed
- 2024-08-26 16:57:11
@misc{9172493,
abstract = {{There are around 200 000 children being witnessed and/or being exposed to domestic violence in Sweden. However, there is a low amount that leads to any sort of conviction. This study addresses challenges that child interrogators face during interrogations with children. How they navigate the challenges together with the revised NICHD protocol and how the interrogators discuss the emotional demands of their role is also addressed since there is a noticeable research gap of child interrogators' experiences. The research involved seven interviews with child interrogators from the police. Document analysis was employed to analyze the revised NICHD protocol, while thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews. Ethical considerations were included for the interviewees were the study's purpose and anonymity was of importance. Hochschild’s theory of emotional labor has been used to understand the emotional challenges faced by child interrogators and potential consequences of their emotional labor in their job. Symbolic interactionism provided insight into the interaction between interrogators and children. The thesis highlights several challenges faced by child interrogators, such as reluctance, avoiding leading questions, and ensuring the child's well-being. They address these challenges through NICHD protocol recommendations, experience, and feedback. Despite their dedication, the emotional toll on interrogators is significant, highlighting the need for better emotional support. The study highlights that interrogators prioritize the well-being of the child, before focusing on conviction or solving the crime.}},
author = {{Laréus, Josefine}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Prioritizing Child Well-being: Techniques and Challenges in Child Interrogations}},
year = {{2024}},
}