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Adolescents comprise a vulnerable population that is exposed to crime and also may be reluctant to disclose full details of their experiences. Little research has addressed effective ways of increasing their willingness to disclose and provide complete reports. Strategies that improve honesty and report completeness in other age groups have not been evaluated to determine whether they are similarly effective at increasing adolescents’ reporting. In the current study, we tested whether rapport building techniques, modified from those commonly used with children and adults to address reasons why adolescents are likely reluctant, enhance the amount of detail adolescents provide about prior experiences. The participants, 14- to 19-year-olds (N = 125), completed an online questionnaire regarding significant events (e.g., big argument with family member) they experienced during the last 12 months. After a delay, they completed a remote interview asking them to recount details of one of the events. The interview began with either standard rapport building composed of largely yes/no questions about the adolescents’ background or one of two expanded rapport building phases: open-ended (questions about the adolescents’ backgrounds that required narrative answers) or enhanced (open-ended questions paired with the interviewer also sharing personal information). Although only adolescents in the standard condition showed age-related increases in information disclosed, overall adolescents in the enhanced condition provided significantly longer and more detailed narratives than adolescents in the other conditions. This effect was largest for the youngest adolescents, suggesting that mutual self-disclosure may be especially beneficial for eliciting honest complete reports from adolescents about salient prior experiences. 

Abstract Though much is known about children's sexual abuse disclosure, less attention has been directed towards disclosure in other types of youthful victims, especially those who may be reluctant to tell due to either normative development or victims' specific experiences. Trafficked youth, particularly those who are adolescents, represent one such group. Understanding how suspected youth trafficking victims are questioned by authorities, especially with respect to establishing rapport and trust, is important for informing professionals how to effectively question this unique population of victims to overcome their reluctance. We examined transcripts of interviews conducted by federal interviewers (n = 12,653 question‐answer turns across 33 interviews) and police (n = 4,972 question‐answer turns across 14 interviews) with trafficked youth between the ages of 12 and 18. Interviews were reliably coded for the length of pre‐substantive questioning, provision of instructions and ground rules, and use of rapport building and supportive strategies. Federal interviewers used pre‐substantive instructions and built rapport with potential victims more often than police did. Also, and although infrequently used overall, supportive interviewing strategies were evident more often by federal interviewers than police. Results provide much‐needed knowledge about how law enforcement investigators interview and elicit disclosures from vulnerable populations of adolescent victims.