Home > The Role of Law Enforcement in the Response to Child Abuse and Neglect > The Role of Law Enforcement in the Response to Child Abuse and Neglect: Special Investigative Techniques

The Role of Law Enforcement in the Response to Child Abuse and Neglect
User Manual Series (1992)

Author(s):  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Donna Pence, Charles Wilson

Year Published:  1992

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You are in section: Table of Contents Additional Acknowledgment Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 - Overview Of The Child… 2 - Role Of Law Enforcement In… 3 - The Investigative Process 4 - Decision Making 5 - Special Considerations For… 6 - Special Types Of Investigations 7 - Special Investigative… 8 - Issues in Arrest Conclusion Glossary Of Terms Notes Selected Bibliography Other Resources

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Special Investigative Techniques

Monitored Pretext Telephone or Personal Conversations

This is a term given to the use of monitored and electronically recorded conversations between a child abuse (usually child sexual abuse) suspect and an alleged victim. If successful, the recorded words of the offender can be used to gain a confession or guilty plea before or, if necessary, during the trial.

Telephone Method

Use of the telephone is probably the most common method and represents the fewest risks for the victim. Under this arrangement, the victim would call the offender on the telephone and engage him/her in a conversation about the abuse. The caller needs to be fully prepared emotionally and intellectually for the contact. He/she must be capable of carrying on the conversation in a natural manner or the offender will become suspicious. When successful, these calls can yield detailed explanations on tape of why offenders had sexual contact with the child.

Personal Conversation

In this arrangement, the victim meets personally with the offender wearing a body transmitter, again engaging the offender in a conversation about the abuse. The conversation is monitored by the officer and recorded electronically. This strategy has produced detailed incriminating statements and even overt actions that suggest abuse was about to be initiated.

Cautions

Neither of these procedures should be used without consulting the department's legal counsel and without consideration of undue trauma for the child and his/her family. While pretext conversations offer a powerful tool when they work, they create risks to the victim and to the investigation. The victim must be emotionally stable and developmentally mature to not be adversely affected by the experience. This technique would be unwise and potentially emotionally abusive in its own right for a young victim or a severely traumatized and fearful victim. The telephone method is generally the least threatening for the victim, and the officer can exercise the greatest level of support and control (being in the room with the victim along with other supportive persons). The personal contact is far more threatening and risky. Even if law enforcement is nearby, the child is physically alone with the person who has victimized him/her and could conceivably be physically injured by the offender before law enforcement intervenes. For this reason, this technique is often reserved for adults who were victimized as children and who are now prepared for the confrontation.

Investigative Risks

A possible risk is an unsuccessful contact, providing the defense with exculpatory evidence. If the offender has been alerted to the investigation or is generally aware of this technique through media accounts of other cases, he/she will use the contact to profess his/her innocence. However, if the victim is too young, immature, or emotionally unready to do this, he/she will not be convincing, thus alerting the offender and resulting in professions of innocence.

For the following reasons, investigators should exercise care in the use of this technique:

• Authorization. The alleged victim and parents should agree to the procedures with the understanding that at any time the child can terminate the call or meeting.
  
  
• Timing. It should be done early enough in the investigation so that the alleged offender is unaware of the investigation.
  
  
• Victim maturity/stability. This should be assessed in consultation with the mental health professional on the team, if available. While potentially placing stress on the victim, an elicited confession may allow the victim to avoid the extreme pressures of confrontation and cross-examination at trial.
  
  
• Victim preparation. The victim should be prepared fully and completely for the contact and should be offered maximum support and protection. It is not advisable to give the child a "script" to follow, but discuss in general the type of information the investigator must have.
  
  
• Check equipment. This is no time for equipment failure.
  
  
• Staffing. Have sufficient personnel in place if a face-to-face meeting is arranged. Backup is essential.
  
  
• Background information of offender. It is extremely important to know if the person being called has the CALLER ID^TM system or any other means of determining from where the call is being placed. The call should be placed from a "safe" telephone where the child can provide a callback number if necessary.

Polygraphs and Psychological Stress Evaluation

These are used by many law enforcement agencies in conducting criminal investigations. As with other cases, there are the traditional problems with admissibility at trial, but they "may encourage additional statements which can be used as evidence."⁵¹ Many investigators have found polygraph reliability even more suspect in child sexual abuse cases. If used, careful attention should be given to the wording of the questions. (See the segment on interviewing the alleged perpetrator.) There is a natural temptation for some law enforcement officers to use a polygraph test to determine the accuracy of the child's statement. However, this practice sends a clear message to the child that the adults do not believe him/her, and it reinforces that child's belief that he/she is to blame.

Audiotapes or Videotapes

The use of audiotaping or videotaping victims varies radically across the country. Some States have laws that allow the introduction of investigative videotapes into evidence at various stages of the criminal trial. The appellate reviews on these statutes have been mixed. As a result, law enforcement officers are generally encouraged to defer to the prosecutor on the wisdom of audiotaping or videotaping statements of the victim. Some jurisdictions allow the use of the tapes in juvenile or family court, but not in criminal court. If such taping is acceptable within the jurisdiction, there are several advantages and disadvantages that must be weighed.

Advantages

• Taping reduces the number of times the victim must be interviewed, allowing other investigators, supervisors, and prosecutors to review the child's statement accurately without reinterviewing the victim.
  
  
• It provides an accurate account of the statement, not the recollections or interpretations of the interviewer.
  
  
• It can be extraordinarily powerful in gaining a confession. By playing a short powerful segment of the tape, it might be useful in breaking down the suspect's defenses.
  
  
• It can be used with a nonoffending parent to force the reality of the abuse upon him/her, in an effort to get him/her to protect the child.
  
  
• In some States, it can be used in lieu of the child's testimony in juvenile court, at grand jury, or at preliminary hearings. Additionally, in some States, it can be used at trial if the child is also available at trial. In other jurisdictions, the taped statements of the child taken during the investigation or in deposition may be admissible if the trial court finds the child to be "unavailable" as a witness. These procedures are being challenged in the appellate courts and the outcome of their use is uncertain.

Disadvantages

• A tape records the child's denials as well as disclosures. Many children disclose in phases, first denying, then disclosing a little, then more, and as they gain comfort, even more details. The tape documents the denials and earlier inconsistencies for the defense to exploit.
  
  
• The tape documents every error the interviewer makes, every misphrased or leading question.
  
  
• It allows defense "experts" an opportunity to critique every word chosen in the interview and to characterize the interviewer's actions in a negative manner.
  
  
• It is not admissible in many courts or cases.
  
  
• The equipment may make the child uncomfortable or distracted.

If taping is used, procedures should be built into the investigative protocol for when it is used, by whom, and in what cases. The protocol should also include the disposition of the tapes, i.e., who gets the copies. The team needs to be sure that it adequately attends to the technical aspects of recordings, so that the product is clear and one can see and hear what is happening during the interview.

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You are in section: Table of Contents Additional Acknowledgment Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 - Overview Of The Child… 2 - Role Of Law Enforcement In… 3 - The Investigative Process 4 - Decision Making 5 - Special Considerations For… 6 - Special Types Of Investigations 7 - Special Investigative… 8 - Issues in Arrest Conclusion Glossary Of Terms Notes Selected Bibliography Other Resources

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Updated on October 9, 2009