Forensic Interviewing Techniques in Child Sexual Abuse Allegations: Implications for the South African Context

This paper aims to examine forensic interviewing techniques during child sexual abuse allegations using South African lenses. Forensic Social Work education and practice in South Africa is emerging as it has been adopted from the United States of America. There are currently no guidelines for forensic social workers to inform the assessment of children who are alleged to be sexually abused which are in a South African context. For the protection of children, skillful forensic interviews must be conducted for perpetrators of child sexual abuse to be convicted. Forensic interviews help in eliciting accurate and complete report from the alleged child victim to determine if the child has been sexually abused and if so, by whom. The ecosystems theory is used to guide this paper. An extensive literature review was conducted to zoom into systems in South Africa which influence the effectiveness of the forensic interviewing techniques useful to facilitate the disclosure of sexual abuse amongst children.