Practicing ground rules in police interviews with child witnesses

Abstract In police interviews with child witnesses, ground rules like ‘correct me when I say something wrong’ are established. Establishing these is required by guidelines, the aim of enhancing reliability children's testimonies. this article, we use conversation analysis to examine how practiced in thirty-eight Dutch witnesses. We focus on officers’ test questions practice such rules. found that, often, (at first) only consist an if -clause. Questions format leave open whose turn it and what appropriate response should be. If -clause allow flexibility difficulty question, a subtle pursuit from child. Yet, they also treated as problematic children, shown silences hesitations. Surprisingly, practicing sometimes occasions affiliation. (Police interviews, testing, practicing, affiliation, analysis, hypothetical questions)*