Entrevista forense com crianças abusadas

: contributos para a adaptação do protocolo do NICHD ao contexto português

Abstract

Child abuse is a worldwide problem, affecting millions of children every year. Medical evidence is rare, being the child most often the only source of information available. This phenomenon demonstrates its sensitivity through the dynamics of the abusive situation, the secret context and psychological consequences as it is part. The investigatory interview with the abused child is an approach to be taken for excellence. The limitations that certain investigative techniques have been demonstrated throughout the literature reveal a necessity to build an interview protocol (NICHD’s - National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) in order to increase the organization and the quality of the interview. In addition to avoid secondary victimization, often present in such cases, this protocol aims to implement an urgent interview that highlights the presence of open ended questions, and absence of information introduced by the interviewer. For a survey of the benefits of applying this protocol, it is intended that the present study improve the adaptation and application of the NICHD protocol to the Portuguese context and understand the relationship between the types of questions used by the interviewer and how the child tend to respond them. Through interviews with a sample of 13 children alleged victims of sexual or physical abuse, with a quantitative analysis and a traditional content analysis of a qualitative nature, we intend to understand the influence that following the guidelines of the protocol may have on the child’s words and certain dynamics involved in the interview.

Date of Award	Jul 2012
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Raquel Matos (Supervisor) & Catarina Ribeiro (Co-Supervisor)