Information provided by witnesses is fundamental to the investigation of
criminal offences, and vulnerable people make up a large proportion of witnesses who
enter the criminal justice system. Research concerning particularly vulnerable
witnesses (i.e., children with autism) is still in its infancy. Further, research
concerning typically developing children and adolescents, while vast, does not fully
address the developmental and cognitive needs that this population present. Current best practice for eliciting information from vulnerable witnesses in
England and Wales advocates the use of the Cognitive Interview (CI), which includes
the Mental Reinstatement of Context (MRC) mnemonic. However, the benefits of
MRC are unclear, both with typically developing children and children with autism.
This thesis presents a series of studies that investigate how children might be better
supported to recreate the context of an event using a developmentally appropriate
drawing technique (Sketch-Reinstatement of Context; Sketch-RC). First, this thesis
explores the interviewing practices of professionals who conduct or assist interviews
with vulnerable witnesses, with a particular focus on the use of drawing. Following
this, a series of studies examine the efficacy of Sketch-RC and MRC with both
typically developing children and children with autism spectrum disorder. Findings demonstrate that practitioners make regular use of drawing during
investigative interviews. Importantly, Sketch-RC was found to be most effective for
all children, improving remembering without a concomitant increase in incorrect or
confabulated recall. Further, Sketch-RC enabled children with autism to perform on
par with their typically developing peers. These findings provide evidence for an
empirically and theoretically supported retrieval tool that can be used by practitioners
when interviewing vulnerable witnesses.