The Supreme Court, Hearsay, and Crawford: Implications for Child Interviewers
APSAC (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children), Vol. 20, p. 2, 2008
Posted: 14 May 2009 Last revised: 22 Jun 2009
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to explain the implications of Crawford for child interviewing. The bottom line is that interviewers should remain committed to best practice; that is, they should continue to pursue approaches that increase the accuracy and completeness of children's reports. It would be a mistake, for example, to stop videotaping interviews in the hopes that this would render interviews non-testimonial. As for prosecutors, Crawford suggests that greater efforts should be made to enable children to testify at trial. In this article, I will briefly review the research on best practices in interviewing, discuss Crawford and the limits it places on testimonial hearsay, and explain how interviewers and prosecutors should best respond.
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