The Role of Siblings Co-Reporting in Criminal Cases of Alleged Child Sexual Abuse

In intrafamilial Child Sexual Assault (CSA) cases, siblings often confide in each other about their abuse. It is important for defense attorneys to question siblings about their conversations surrounding abuse to assess their credibility and honesty. The present study qualitatively analyzes the content of questions defense attorneys are asking siblings in intrafamilial CSA cases across 67 transcripts. These questions were then categorized into four content categories which included confiding in which the child talked to their sibling about their abuse, co-preparing in which siblings discussed what they would say in court, disclosure in which they discussed whom to disclose the abuse to, and awareness in which they try to ascertain if a sibling was aware of another sibling’s abuse. Within the 67 selected transcripts 1,384 questions were asked about siblings but only 18% (n = 250) were about conversations between the siblings. Of these identified questions, 63.6% of questions asked about confiding, 13.6 % questions asked about co-preparing, 20% of questions asked about disclosure, and 2% of questions asked about awareness. This may indicate a need for these questions to be asked during the child’s forensic interview to elicit an accurate account. Children’s forensic interviews use protocols to help children produce detailed and accurate accounts of abuse and in trials children are likely to experience distress while providing testimony which may lead to a child misremembering or forgetting details of their abuse. Analyzing this study’s qualitative data could aid children undergoing legal procedures when reporting abuse.