Views By Two Series
Questioning Alleged Child Victims: From the Laboratory to the Real World
Featuring
Sheriff Sandra Hutchens and Professor Jodi Quas
Please join us for the final event in our Views By Two series, which pairs a Center researcher with a prestigious practitioner to discuss hot topics in the field of psychology and law. By providing both a researcher and practitioner viewpoint, we hope to start a dialogue that will bridge the gap between scientific research and policy.
This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
Please RSVP for the event here by May 12th.
Approved for 1 MCLE credit.
Date:
Thursday, May 14th, 2015
Time:
5:30pm – 7:00pm
Location:
University of California, Irvine campus
Social and Behavioral Sciences Gateway building, room 1517 (#214 on campus map)
For an interactive map of the parking structure and venue, click here.
*Parking is available in the Social Sciences Parking Structure – please note that this lot is not attended after 5pm. Instead, please use the electronic permit kiosk that is available on the ground floor. If you prefer, an attendant is available at the Student Center Parking Lot.
Abstract:
In this collaborative presentation, Dr. Jodi Quas, Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior, Sandra Hutchens, Sheriff of Orange County, California, and several of her staff will engage in an interactive discussion highlighting both the opportunities and challenges that arise when attempting to apply scientific research to interviewing suspected child victims of actual criminal investigations. Sheriff Hutchens will serve as the moderator to the discussion. Participants will include Dr. Quas, a sergeant, and three investigators, who currently work for the Sheriff’s department and who are charged with the difficult task of interviewing witnesses to and victims of crimes in order to gather evidence. The investigators will bring their years of experience to bear on the discussion, and Dr. Quas will bring expertise on forensic interviewing of vulnerable witnesses gleaned through two decades of scientific research. Their combined knowledge, albeit from very different perspectives, will ensure that the discussion is informative and applicable, both to science and to practice.
The session will begin with an overview from Sheriff Hutchens regarding the challenges inherent in attempting to obtain evidence when crimes occur, especially crimes that children may have experienced or witnessed. Then, Dr. Quas will describe several best-practice recommendations that have emerged from the scientific literature regarding how to interview children to elicit accurate and complete reports. Next, the investigators will present different case scenarios (de-identified) from their past experiences, selecting complicated cases that may not easily conform to best-practice recommendations. Dr. Quas will discuss whether best-practice recommendations can be applied, and if not, what alternative strategies might exist. The investigators will also describe some of the difficulties they face-on the ground-when attempting to elicit information from victims and witnesses, and Dr. Quas will review extant research that may inform those difficulties. Sheriff Hutchens and Dr. Quas will close with a broader discussion of what can be done to improve the implementation of best-practice recommendations and concurrently how scientists can improve the applicability of their research to the types of situations encountered by law enforcement professionals.
Speaker Biographies:
Sandra Hutchens – Orange County Sheriff
Sandra Hutchens is the 12th Orange County Sheriff and the first woman to serve as the county’s top cop. She was named Sheriff by the Board of Supervisors in 2008 after a nationwide search which included a field of 48 candidates. She wast first elected in 2010 to her first full term.
A Southern California native, Sheriff Hutchens was raised in Long Beach, where she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High. Shortly after graduating from high school she was hired as a secretary for the Los Angeles Sheriff ’s Department, where she met some Deputies who convinced her to apply for a Deputy position. She graduated from the Academy in 1978. Her 30 year career includes counterterrorism training in Israel, FBI National Academy training, participation in the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative Program at Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration from the University of La Verne.
In her five years as Sheriff of Orange County, Sheriff Hutchens has made numerous changes to the Orange County Sheriff ’s Department with the goal of restoring honor to the department. New leadership staff has been added and policies have been revised all with a commitment to the department’s core values: “Integrity without compromise; Service above self; Professionalism in the performance of duty; Vigilance in safeguarding our community.”
Dr. Jodi Quas – Professor of Psychology and Social Behavior, and Nursing Science
Dr. Quas conducts empirical research on the topics of memory development in early childhood, effects of stress and trauma on children’s development, and children’s involvement in the legal system. Her specific research interests include strategies to improve children’s narrative productivity and accuracy; the effects of stress on children’s memory; emotional regulation and physiological reactivity as predictors of children’s coping with and memory for stressful events; jurors’ perceptions of child witnesses; and consequences of legal involvement on child witnesses and victims. She has been conducting research for over 15 years and is recognized as a leading researcher and significant contributor to the field of child development. In 2008 she was awarded the American Psychological Association Award for Scientific Early Career Contributions to Developmental Psychology.
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