Laypersons' Recognition of and Attribution of Blame in Situations Involving Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.

Successful identification of domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) remains challenging. Laypersons could play a significant role in identifying victims, but only if laypersons recognize trafficking situations as such and do not incorrectly attribute responsibility to victims. In the current study, we examined laypersons' perceptions of situations highly suggestive of DMST.

The Comparative Productivity of the Birthday Narrative in 6- to 11-year-Old Maltreated Children.

We asked 111 6- to 11-year-old maltreated children to tell "everything that happened" on their last birthday, the last time they did something they liked to do outside, and yesterday. All children produced details in response to the like to do and yesterday narratives, compared to 98% of children in response to the birthday narrative. Questions about yesterday were more likely to elicit productive responses (93%) than questions about the child's birthday (90%) or things they liked to do (88%).

Forensic interviewers' difficulty with the birthday narrative.

Background: Narrative practice increases children's productivity in forensic interviews, and one recommended topic is the child's last birthday, though interviewers have raised concerns about its productivity. STUDY 1 OBJECTIVE: Study 1 surveyed forensic interviewers' use of and attitudes about the birthday narrative.

Participants And Setting: Participants included 170 forensic interviewers who subscribed to a webinar promoting use of the birthday narrative (M = 43 years, SD = 10.

Appellate Review of Child Sexual Abuse Convictions: The Importance of Character Evidence.

This study examined the role of character evidence and other issues in criminal appeals of child sexual abuse (CSA) convictions. Character evidence includes uncharged acts and character witnesses who testify to another's reputation or opinion and is offered to prove an individual's propensities. Examining 168 appellate court opinions reviewing CSA convictions between 2005 and 2015 in Maricopa County, Arizona, we found that when specific types of evidence were at issue, they were most often character evidence issues (49%).

Child Witnesses Productively Respond to "How" Questions About Evaluations but Struggle With Other "How" Questions.

Child interviewers are often advised to avoid asking "How" questions, particularly with young children. However, children tend to answer "How" evaluative questions productively (e.g.

Children's Narrative Coherence in "Achieving Best Evidence" Forensic Interviews and Courtroom Testimony.

In the United Kingdom, Section 27 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act permits "Achieving Best Evidence" (ABE) forensic interviews to replace the evidence-in-chief in cases involving children. It is therefore imperative that forensic interviewers elicit complete, reliable, and coherent narratives from children. The goal of the current research study was to assess the coherence of forensic interviews and whether the interviewers' emotional or cognitive support was associated with increases in the coherence of these interviews.

GLORIA - A globally representative hyperspectral in situ dataset for optical sensing of water quality.

The development of algorithms for remote sensing of water quality (RSWQ) requires a large amount of in situ data to account for the bio-geo-optical diversity of inland and coastal waters. The GLObal Reflectance community dataset for Imaging and optical sensing of Aquatic environments (GLORIA) includes 7,572 curated hyperspectral remote sensing reflectance measurements at 1 nm intervals within the 350 to 900 nm wavelength range. In addition, at least one co-located water quality measurement of chlorophyll a, total suspended solids, absorption by dissolved substances, and Secchi depth, is provided.

Elaborations and Denials in Children's Responses to Yes-No Any/Some Questions in Forensic Interviews.

This study examined 379 4- to 12-year-old children's answers to any/some and other yes-no questions in forensic interviews about sexual abuse ( = 10,041). Yes-no questions that include the terms any/some (e.g.

Cremaster muscle thickening: the anatomic difference in men with testicular retraction due to hyperactive cremaster muscle reflex.

The objective was to assess whether men suffering from testicular retraction secondary to hyperactive cremaster muscle reflex have an anatomic difference in the thickness of the cremaster muscle in comparison to men who do not have retraction. From March 2021 to December 2021, 21 men underwent microsurgical subinguinal cremaster muscle release (MSCMR) on 33 spermatic cord units, as 12 of them had bilateral surgery, at Surgicare of South Austin Ambulatory Surgery Center in Austin, TX, USA. During that same time frame, 36 men underwent subinguinal microsurgical varicocele repair on 41 spermatic cord units, as 5 were bilateral for infertility.

The Utility of the Birthday Prompt in Narrative Practice with Maltreated and Non-maltreated 4- to 9-year-old Children.

Forensic interviewers are encouraged to elicit a practice narrative from children in order to train them to answer free recall questions with narrative information. Although asking children about their last birthday has been recommended, concerns have been raised that many children will have nothing to report. This study asked 994 4- to 9-year-old maltreated and non-maltreated children to recall their last birthday.

4- to 15-year-old children's misinterpretation of invitations asking "about the time" as requests for temporal information in forensic interviews.

Background: Forensic interviewers are taught to ask children invitations using the word "time" to refer to a specific episode (e.g., "Tell me about the last time he touched you.

Novel Forms of Reluctance Among Suspected Child Sexual Abuse Victims in Adolescence.

Adolescents tend to be neglected in research examining child sexual abuse (CSA) interviews, yet are often said to be particularly reluctant. This study examined reluctance among 119 10- to 17-year-old females questioned about suspected CSA ( = 25,942 responses), utilizing a scheme identifying previously overlooked types of reluctance in commercially sexually exploited (CSE) youth. In contrast to the CSE youth in a prior study, in which 26% of responses were reluctant, only 8% of CSA victims' responses expressed reluctance.

Pseudotemporal Invitations: 6- to 9-year-Old Maltreated Children's Tendency to Misinterpret Invitations Referencing "Time" as Solely Requesting Conventional Temporal Information.

Forensic interviewers ask children broad input-free recall questions about individual episodes in order to elicit complete narratives, often asking about "the first time," "the last time," and "one time." An overlooked problem is that the word "time" is potentially ambiguous, referring both to a particular episode and to conventional temporal information. We examined 191 6-9-year-old maltreated children's responses to questions about recent events varying the wording of the invitations, either asking children to "tell me about" or "tell me what happened" one time/the first time/the last time the child experienced recent recurrent events.

Suppositional Wh-Questions About Perceptions, Conversations, and actions are More Productive than Paired Yes-No Questions when Questioning Maltreated Children.

Forensic interviewers are taught to pair yes-no questions with open-ended requests for recall in order to reduce the likelihood that they will be misled by false "yes" responses. However, yes-no questions may elicit false "no" responses. Questioning 112 6- to 11-year-old maltreated children about three innocuous events (outside activities, yesterday, last birthday), this study compared the productivity of paired yes-no questions about perceptions, conversations, and actions involving the hands and mouth (e.

Police Interviewing Behaviors and Commercially Sexually Exploited Adolescents' Reluctance.

Little is known about the relation between law enforcement interviewing behaviors and commercially sexually exploited children's (CSEC) reluctance. This study examined the relation between officers' use of maximization, (references to) expertise, minimization, and support and adolescent CSEC victims' reluctance in a small sample of police interviews ( = 2,416 question-answer pairs across ten interviews). Twenty-six percent of officers' utterances contained at least one interviewing tactic.

Identifying novel forms of reluctance in commercially sexually exploited adolescents.

Background: Research has largely overlooked expressions of reluctance in commercially sexually exploited adolescent ("CSEA") victims. This is problematic because gaining information from known victims is of the utmost importance in order to better serve the needs of current and potential future victims.

Objective: The current study proposes a novel conceptualization of reluctance based on CSEA victims' transcripts from police interviews and courtroom examinations.

Linguistically complex recognition prompts in pre-recorded cross-examinations.

This study examined the effects of pre-trial preparation and pre-recorded cross-examinations on the linguistic complexity of recognition prompts (i.e., option-posing or suggestive questions) used when questioning child victims in English criminal courts.

Children's Signaling of Incomprehension: The Diagnosticity of Practice Questions During Interview Instructions.

Forensic interviewers are routinely advised to instruct children that they should indicate when they do not understand a question. This study examined whether administering the instruction with a practice question may help interviewers identify the means by which individual children signal incomprehension. We examined 446 interviews with children questioned about abuse, including 252 interviews in which interviewers administered the instruction with a practice question (4- to 13-year-old children; = 7.

Order of Encoding Predicts Young Children's Responses to Sequencing Questions.

We propose that young children exhibit an bias, such that they are inclined to report or act out events in the order in which they were originally encoded. This bias helps to explain why children assume that events they first hear described are in chronological order and why they often appear to understand "after" better than "before" when they are questioned about experienced events. Asking children about a sequence of events as a whole (in particular using "first") could avoid order of encoding biases, because children would not have to answer questions about events within the sequence.

Forensic Interviewers' Difficulty With Invitations: Faux Invitations and Negative Recasting.

An ongoing challenge for forensic interviewers is to maximize their use of invitations, such as requests that the child "tell me more about" details mentioned by the child. Examining 434 interviews with 4- to 12-year-old children questioned about abuse, this study analyzed (1) faux invitations, in which interviewers prefaced questions with "tell me" but then asked a noninvitation, (2) negative recasts, in which interviewers started to ask an invitation but then recast the question as a wh- or option-posing question, and (3) other aspects of questions that may relate to productivity independent of their status as invitations. About one fourth of "tell me" questions were faux invitations, and over 80% of recasts were negative.