Oral Presentation: Effectiveness of the first online training in Investigative Interviews with child victims in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic

Title: Effectiveness of the first online training in Investigative Interviews with child victims in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract:

In order to support the training of investigative interviewers in the context of the implementation of the Law of Videorecorded Interviews in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fundación Amparo y Justicia, along with experts in adult education, developed an online training model to facilitate the acquisition of the competences required to conduct investigative interviews with child victims of sexual and other violent crimes.

The present study explores the effectiveness of the first two online courses in the Investigative Interview technique during the first semester of 2021. The study evaluated the performance of seventeen interviewers in mock interviews with trained actors playing the role of child victims, before and after their training experience.

The results showed an increase in the adherence of the interviewers to the different phases contained in the NICHD protocol, and the use of a major proportion of open-ended questions at the end of the course.

One of the main conclusions is that the online-program outcomes are as positive as the in-person courses carried out previously in Chile and internationally. A remaining challenge is the need to assess this online method with a larger sample of participants.