NCJ Number
101229
Journal
Children's Legal Rights Journal Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1986) Pages: 13-17
Date Published
1986
Length
5 pages
Annotation
This article recommends protocols for videotaping interviews with child sexual abuse victims, discusses the in-court uses of such videotaped interviews, and identifies legal and constitutional issues raised when such videotapes are offered as evidence.
Abstract
The development of a protocol for videotaping interviews helps ensure that the child victim will not be subjected to unnecessary or repeated interrogations. An analysis of relevant State laws is the first step in developing interview protocols so as to ensure legal compliance. Procedures should be specified for identifying cases that require videotaped interviews of victims and determining the timing of the interview. The protocol must assume the videotape will be later scrutinized by defense attorneys, prosecutors, judges, grand jurors, and jurors. Guidelines should specify that a trained professional elicit the child's statement, using techniques appropriate for sexual abuse cases. Videotaped statements can help prosecutors at trial by providing abuse evidence that supplements the child's court testimony. The defense attorney may use the videotape to demonstrate contradictions between the child's initial statements on the videotape and the child's court testimony. Videotaped statements used in court without the child's in-person testimony run the risk of violating the hearsay rule and the sixth amendment confrontation clause. Discovery rules provide that defense attorneys have access to videotaped interviews prior to trial. 10 footnotes.