Dynamics of forensic interviews with suspected abuse victims who do not disclose abuse.

Objectives: The present study was designed to explore structural differences between forensic interviews in which children made allegations and those in which children did not make allegations.

Methodology: Fifty forensic interviews of 4- to 13-year-old suspected victims of abuse who did not disclose abuse during the interview were compared with the same number of forensic interviews of alleged victims who made allegations of sexual or physical abuse. Only cases in which there was substantial reason to believe that abuse had taken place were included in the study.

Effects of early and later family violence on children's behavior problems and depression: a longitudinal, multi-informant perspective.

Objectives: To examine the effects of different forms of family violence at two developmental stages by assessing a sample of 110 Israeli children, drawn from the case files of Israeli family service agencies, studied longitudinally in both middle childhood and adolescence.

Methods: Information about the children's adjustment was obtained from parents, teachers, and the children themselves when the children averaged 10.6 and 15.

Adolescents' perceptions of attachments to their mothers and fathers in families with histories of domestic violence: a longitudinal perspective.

Objective: The effects of both childhood and teenage experiences of domestic violence on adolescent-parent attachments were examined.

Method: Israeli adolescents (M = 15.9 years) who were either victims of physical abuse, witnesses of physical spouse abuse, victims and witnesses of abuse, or neither victims nor witnesses of abuse were questioned about attachments to their parents using the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment [IPPA; Armsden, G.

Interviewing youthful suspects in alleged sex crimes: a descriptive analysis.

Objective: To introduce and evaluate a structured interview protocol designed for investigative interviews of youthful alleged perpetrators of child sexual abuse.

Method: Seventy-two alleged perpetrators ranging from 9 to 14 years of age (M = 12 years) were interviewed by 1 of 13 experienced youth investigators, employed by the Israeli Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, about incidents that had been reported by alleged victims. All interviews were conducted as part of the investigators' regular work and followed the structured interview guide appended to this article.

Using a human figure drawing to elicit information from alleged victims of child sexual abuse.

Ninety 4- to 13-year-old alleged victims of sexual abuse were interviewed by police officers using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) investigative interview protocol, following which they were shown a human figure drawing and asked a series of questions. The drawing and associated questions elicited an average of 86 new forensically relevant details. They were especially productive with 4- to 7-year-olds, who provided an average of 95 additional details (27% of their total) after the drawing was introduced despite having previously "exhausted" their memories.

The child maltreatment log: a computer-based program for describing research samples.

The Child Maltreatment Log (CML) is a computer-based program designed to record information about children's maltreatment experiences and associated life events. Addressing concerns posed by scientific panels and grant review panels, the CML was designed to improve upon existing instruments to facilitate collaboration among researchers interested in maltreatment. The CML encourages researchers to collect information from multiple sources and informants concerning children's maltreatment experiences.

Differences between accounts provided by witnesses and alleged victims of child sexual abuse.

Objectives: To determine whether child witnesses of sexual abuse were more or less informative about the alleged incidents than alleged victims when interviewed similarly.

Method: Twenty-six alleged victims of child sexual abuse (aged 5 to 14 years; M=9.8 years) and 26 children who had witnessed but not experienced similar events were interviewed by experienced youth investigators about the alleged abuse.

Age differences in young children's responses to open-ended invitations in the course of forensic interviews.

To elucidate age differences in responses to free-recall prompts (i.e., invitations and cued invitations) and focused recognition prompts (i.