Children exposed to obscene phone calls: What they remember and tell.

• This case study examined childrens reports from an obscene phone call (i.e., a verbal sexual abuse). We investigated which type of information the children re-ported, the completeness and accuracy of the childrens statements, and whether there were systematic patterns in terms of memory distortions and omissions. The completeness and the accuracy of the childrens statements were examined by matching 64 childrens statements given during police interviews with a de-tailed documentation of each phone call, made by the perpetrator during the ac-tual phone calls. All children remembered the phone call per se, but they were found to omit almost all of the sexual and sensitive information (perpetrators questions and statements) and about 70% of the neutral information given by the perpetrator. However, the children were accurate in the information they did re-port. The fact that the children did remember more of the neutral information suggests that they actually remembered the sexual information as well, but that they chose not to report it. Results indicate that children who have been sexually abused may remember more than they report in an initial interview. One possi-ble underlying reason is that children experience shame or embarrassment.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Obscene phone call

verbal abuse

childrens memory

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)