Sara Landström

University of Gothenburg | GU · Department of Psychology

Researchers have accumulated a substantial body of empirical work studying observable behaviors that might distinguish truth tellers from liars—that is, cues to deception. We report a survey of N = 50 deception cue experts—active researchers on deception—who provided their opinions on three issues: (1) What cues distinguish between truthful and dec...

Background Legal practitioners have expressed concerns regarding the quality of interpreter-mediated forensic interviews with child witnesses. Objective This mixed-methods study aimed to examine Swedish forensic interviewers' experiences of conducting child interviews via a language interpreter. Participants and setting Forty-one forensic intervi...

Background Following technological developments, there has been increasing interest in online offenders' use of digital communication technology to sexually groom and abuse children. However, research has thus far primarily explored offenders' interactions with decoys instead of actual children, and initial evidence indicates that conversations wit...

Research to date has exclusively focused on the implantation of false memories for single events. The current experiment is the first proof of concept that false memories can be implanted for repeated autobiographical experiences using an adapted false memory implantation paradigm. We predicted that false memory implantation approaches for repeated...

Although child forensic interviews have been studied extensively, research on interpreter-mediated child interviews is still limited. The aim of the current study was to examine Swedish forensic interviewers’ experiences of conducting child interviews via a language interpreter. A questionnaire was answered by 41 professional child interviewers, an...

Background: Legal practitioners have expressed concerns regarding the quality of interpreter-mediated forensic interviews with child witnesses.Objective: This mixed-methods study aimed to examine Swedish forensic interviewers’ experiences of conducting child interviews via a language interpreter. Participants and setting: Forty-one forensic intervi...

Handbok i rättspsykologi presenterar nationell och internationell vetenskaplig kunskap i ett lättillgängligt format. Boken är skriven av sjutton författare som alla är aktiva forskare och lärare inom rättspsykologi eller angränsande områden. Den inleds med en introduktion till det rättspsykologiska området och det svenska rättsväsendet. Därefter be...

Although drawing is frequently used during investigative interviews, few studies have explored the effectiveness of draw‐and‐talk techniques with very young children. In this article, we examined the effects of drawing on preschoolers' (3–6 years old) reports of self‐experienced and non‐experienced events. In Study I, we interviewed 83 preschoolers...

The aim of the present study was to gain a first-person perspective on the experiences of technology-assisted child sexual abuse (TA-CSA), and a deeper understanding of the way it may affect its victims. Seven young women (aged 17–24) with experience of TA-CSA before the age of 18 participated in individual in-depth interviews. The interviews were...

Purpose The current study aimed to examine a Norwegian technique for conducting investigative interviews with preschoolers: the Sequential Interview (SI). The SI advocates for increased initial rapport building and includes a pre‐determined break before the substantive phase. To explore the potential benefits and risks of the SI, the technique was...

In this commentary, we raise concerns about potential methodological shortcomings in a recent paper by Baugerud et al. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2020, 34, 654-663, which threaten the validity and the interpretative power of the original authors' conclusions. Our concerns relate to (a) the use of a scoring system that fails to account for how ch...

Cases of online child sexual abuse (OCSA) are increasing dramatically in number, but research on this relatively new type of crime and its psychological consequences is limited, leading to major challenges for the judiciary. The present mixed methods study investigated 98 legal cases of OCSA (children aged 7–17 years,M= 12.3,SD= 1.92) in Swedish Di...

People who falsely remember to be sexually abused as a child sometimes report memories of repeated abuse. Research to date, however, has exclusively focused on the implantation of false memories for single events. We investigated false memory formation for repeated autobiographical experiences using an adapted false memory implantation paradigm. We...

Increased knowledge about practitioners’ experiences of conducting forensic child interviews may provide valuable insights into the perceived challenges they encounter when questioning children. This mixed-methods study examined Swedish practitioners’ views on different interviewing components (ground rules, rapport building, practice narratives, qu...

Denault, V., Plusquellec, P., Jupe, L. M., St-Yves, M., Dunbar, N. E., Hartwig, M., … van Koppen, P. J. (2020). L’analyse de la communication non verbale: Les dangers de la pseudoscience en contextes de sécurité et de justice [The analysis of nonverbal communication: The dangers of pseudoscience in security and justice contexts]. Revue internationa...

Purpose Forensic interviewers often face witnesses who are unwilling to cooperate with the investigation. In this experimental study, we examined the extent to which cooperativeness instructions affect information disclosure in a witness investigative interview. Methods One hundred and thirty‐six participants watched a recorded mock‐crime and were...

In the present experiment, we examined preschoolers' disclosures of a secret as a function of rapport building strategies used in Scandinavian field settings (verbal rapport building vs. prop rapport building), age in months (33-75 months) and question type (open-ended free recall invitation vs. suggestive questions). Fifty-three preschoolers (M =...

Söndagen den 16 augusti 1998 hittades fyraåriga Kevin Hjalmarsson död vid Glafsfjorden i Dottevik strax utanför centrala Arvika. Polisen misstänker att han utsatts för ett brott och inleder en förundersökning om mord. Tre månader senare meddelar polisen att alla frågetecken kring Kevins död är utredda. Två bröder, fem respektive sju år gamla har er...

For security and justice professionals (e.g., police officers, lawyers, judges), the thousands of peer-reviewed articles on nonverbal communication represent important sources of knowledge. However, despite the scope of the scientific work carried out on this subject, professionals can turn to programs, methods, and approaches that fail to reflect...

Investigating and prosecuting cases of alleged child sexual abuse is challenging, especially if the report concerns a young child. The present study aimed to examine prosecutors’ experiences investigating and prosecuting cases of alleged sexual abuse of pre-schoolers. Ninety-four Swedish child abuse prosecutors participated in a 2017 national surve...

Para los profesionales de la seguridad y la justicia (policías, abogados, jueces), los miles de artículos revisados por pares sobre comunicación no verbal representan fuentes importantes de conocimiento. Sin embargo, a pesar del alcance del trabajo científico realizado sobre este tema, los profesionales pueden recurrir a programas, métodos y enfoqu...

Innocent suspects interviewed by a guilt‐presumptive versus innocence‐presumptive or neutral interviewer may tend more to display non‐verbal behaviours which neutral judges consider indicative of guilt. We examined the effects of interviewer's presumption of guilt on innocent mock suspects' alibis. Participants (N = 90) provided an alibi to convinc...

During police interviews, innocent suspects may provide unconvincing alibis due to impaired memory processes or guilt-presumptive behaviour on behalf of the interviewer. Consequently, innocent suspects may be prosecuted and tried in court, where lay people who serve jury duty will assess their alibi’s credibility. To examine lay people’s beliefs an...

The present study examined whether mock offenders who were instructed to falsely deny crime details or to simulate amnesia, would consequently experience impaired memory. Ninety‐three university students were first asked to commit a mock crime and were then assigned to three different conditions (i.e., false denial, simulated amnesia and truth tell...

The goal of the present experiment was to examine the effect of certain (deceptive) strategies (e.g., false denial) on memory. Specifically, participants were shown a traumatic virtual reality (VR) video of an airplane crash. Following this, participants (N= 94) received questions concerning details from the VR scene in a baseline memory task. Then...

Alleged child sexual abuse against preschool-aged children is often considered one of the most challenging cases for a prosecutor to handle. The aim of the current study was to examine differences between prosecuted and discontinued cases of alleged sexual abuse of preschool-aged children. Data from Swedish criminal cases of alleged sexual abuse of...

In this study, we examined the effects of complainant emotionality, presentation mode, and statement consistency on credibility judgments in an intimate partner abuse case. Male and female police trainees (N = 172) assessed the credibility of a domestic abuse complainant who appeared either live or on video, and behaved in an emotional (displaying...

Can a never experienced event be planted in children’s memory? Even if the given event allegedly happened to them more than once? In this paper, the creation of children’s false memories is discussed. We will start with a discussion of a legal case in which children falsely claimed to remember being abused more than once. We will then discuss the m...

The rapid development of information and communication technology during the last decades has radically changed the way we live our lives in many ways. While most of this progress is beneficial, there are also some worrying downsides to it. Today's children have daily access to internet, and recent statistics from Sweden indicate that there has bee...

Being sexually abused as a child can have severe consequences for the victim, both in the short and long term. But what are the consequences for those children who are abused online? The aim of this study was to examine the psychological consequences of online child sexual abuse (CSA) and explore possible differences between victims of online abus...

Objectives: Alleged child sexual abuse (CSA) against preschool-aged children is likely one of the most challenging cases for prosecutors to handle. In cases of alleged CSA, prosecutors are in charge of the preliminary investigation and work together with police and oftentimes, Child Protective Services (CPS). We aimed to examine prosecutors’ experi...

General consensus exists in the psychological literature with regard to what constitutes child sexual abuse (CSA) and the negative implications for victims of CSA throughout the course of their lives. Recently, different types of cognitive strategies that victims may use to cope with CSA and the possible effects of these coping strategies on memory...

Purpose Prosecutors working with child sexual abuse ( CSA ) cases involving young children have raised concerns that reliability criteria from the Supreme Court of Sweden are holding children's testimony to impossible standards (e.g., expecting the child's testimony to be long, rich in detail and spontaneous). This study aimed to address these conc...

Investigating and adjudicating allegations of child sexual abuse are challenging tasks. In the present study, we examined defendant statements concerning charges of sexual abuse against young children in Swedish district court cases (87 defendants, 140 child complainants, tried between January 2010 to December 2015). A main objective was to test pr...

The aim of the current study was to investigate preschool-aged children’s disclosures of an unfamiliar adult’s transgression. Using a randomised controlled experiment, we examined statements given by preschoolers as a function of two different rapport building interviewing strategies adapted from the National Institute of Child Health and Developme...

A survey study was conducted with the aim to gain knowledge concerning difficulties and possibilities in handlings of rape victims and rape cases among Swedish professionals. An online survey was taken by 237 police employees, prosecutors and healthcare personnel, who meet victims of rape in their daily work. The survey included questions concernin...

The technical progress and widespread use of internet in today’s society is not all beneficial. Even younger children have daily access to internet via smartphones or computers, and recent statistics from Sweden indicate that there may have been a drastic increase in sexual exploitation of children. To date, there is a lack of knowledge about the p...

Victims of multiple perpetrator rape (MPR) have been found to be an especially vulnerable group. This study examined effects of MPR and perpetrators’ use of force on attributions of victim and perpetrator blame. In two large experiments (total N = 2,928), Swedish community members read scenarios depicting an MPR and subsequently made several rating...

Young victims of child sexual abuse can – for a range of developmental, motivational and contextual reasons – have difficulties disclosing their experiences. In the present study, corroborated court cases concerning 57 preschoolers’ disclosures of sexual abuse were examined using qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Together, the cases invol...

Court proceedings concerning alleged child sexual abuse (CSA) against young children constitute a challenge for legal systems around the globe. Legal decision-makers are often faced with the difficult task of assessing likelihood of guilt based on oral testimonies and circumstantial evidence. Beyond the child’s testimony, a suspect confession can a...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) cases are notoriously difficult to investigate and prosecute. Previous data from Swedish samples suggest that 10 - 15 % of reported cases are prosecuted, and several studies suggest that prosecution is less likely in investigations involving preschool-aged complainants compared to cases where the complainant is an older chi...

Pitch presentation accepted to EAPL 2017 (European Association of Psychology and Law) in Mechelen, Belgium. Research examining the mnemonic consequences of witnesses’ cooperation style during investigative interviews.

Child abuse cases often lack corroborative evidence in the form of injuries, DNA or direct witness observations. Instead, the most important source of information about the alleged crime is typically the child’s testimony. A wide range of factors can influence children’s capability and willingness to disclose abuse during a police interview. Hence,...

Odours are often identified as effective cues to evoke autobiographical memories. The purpose of the present experiment was to examine if olfactory exposure during encoding and retrieval could be strategically used to facilitate recall of information relating to a crime. Ninety-seven undergraduate students volunteered to participate in a 2 (Encodin...

Establishing the origin of those seeking asylum is essential but difficult as asylum seekers often cannot corroborate their origin claim with documents. The aim of the present study was to assess whether asking knowledge questions, sketch questions and impossible questions are valid methods to determine the veracity of an origin claim. Participants...

The aim of the current vignette study is to map the style, type, and themes of questions that are asked when assessing the credibility of asylum seekers’ claims. Sixty-five officials from the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket), were asked to respond to one out of four different vignettes that contained fictitious asylum narratives. Each vi...

Young victims of child sexual abuse can for a variety of developmental, social, and contextual reasons have difficulties disclosing their experiences. The present project aimed to shed light on preschoolers’ disclosure tendencies by closely examining 57 Swedish court cases of child sexual abuse. All allegations were verified from supporting corrobo...

A testimony from the complainant can add vital information on the offense in sexual abuse cases. Special considerations need to be made when assessing testimonies from preschoolers, as a number of social and cognitive factors affect their ability to remember and retell any event. Reality Monitoring (RM) and Criteria Based Content Analysis (CBCA) ar...

The aim of the present study was to examine what factors the Swedish District Courts and Courts of Appeal consider relevant when ruling in the notoriously difficult cases of child sexual abuse (CSA). One of the main features of sexual offenses is the absence of corroborative evidence, and testimonies are often the only evidence available to the cou...

Two important aspects that have been more or less neglected in previous research within the field of attributed blame are multiple perpetrator rape cases and the level of force used by the perpetrator(s). According to Swedish legislation, a rape situation with more than one perpetrator is to be considered an aggravated crime, irrespective of the le...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) cases offer a considerable challenge for the court, as evidence other than the complainant’s testimony is rare. The court is faced with the task of evaluating the reliability of the testimony, a task that can be especially challenging when the complainant is a small child. Reliability assessments made by Swedish courts requ...

Young victims of child sexual abuse can for a variety of developmental, social, and contextual reasons have difficulties disclosing their experiences. The present project aimed to shed light on preschoolers’ disclosure tendencies by closely examining 57 Swedish court cases of child sexual abuse. All allegations were verified from supporting corrobo...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) cases are notoriously difficult to investigate, and less than 10% of cases are prosecuted. We aimed to investigate prosecutors’ experiences of preparing for and prosecuting suspected CSA cases with preschool aged victims. Nine specialized child prosecutors (6 women, 3 men) took part either in individual interviews or in foc...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) investigations are complicated and few cases are prosecuted. The aim of the present study was to investigate judicial decisions in CSA investigations. Seventy-one law students (42 females, 29 males) read a vignette depicting a CSA investigation, assessed the complainant's and the accused's credibility, and if the case shoul...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) cases are difficult to investigate and prosecute; something that especially holds true when the victim is a small child. The present study investigated prosecutors’ perceptions of working with CSA cases involving small children (ages 6 or under). Nine prosecutors who had specialized in working with child cases were either i...

Child interviews are often video-recorded for further use in a police investigation or an upcoming trial. Considering that police interviews are, in some countries, the only way for children to share their testimony with a court, it is of utmost importance that these video documentation procedures are unbiased. Previous research on camera perspecti...

Previous research has consistently shown that rape victims may be blamed for the assault but little is known about victim blaming in other sexual crimes. In the present experiment, we examined blame attributions for sexual assault and online sexual harassment. The study also investigated the effects of victim behavior, participants' belief in a jus...

Children's memory reports are often sparse, which increases the need for efficient interview methods. The present study investigated whether odour reinstatement can aid children's memory and increase the amount of information recalled from an experienced event. Children (N = 106, mean age 10 years, 8 months) experienced a magic show where a vanilla...

Child sexual abuse (CSA) investigations are complicated and few cases are prosecuted. The aim of the present study was to investigate judicial decisions in CSA investigations. Seventy-one law students (42 females, 29 males) read a vignette depicting a CSA investigation, assessed the complainant’s and the accused’s credibility, and if the case shoul...

Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) investigations are complicated and few cases are prosecuted. The aim of the present study was to investigate judicial decisions in CSA investigations. Seventy-one law students (42 females, 29 males) read a vignette depicting a CSA investigation, assessed the complainant’s and the accused’s credibility, and if the case shoul...

The emotional victim effect (EVE, i.e., that the emotionality of a victim’s demeanor affects perceived credibility) is a robust research finding for female victims of rape but much less explored for other types of victims and crimes. In this article, we investigate the EVE with a male assault complainant. In addition, we vary the presentation mode...

Tanto los hechos de la vida real como la investigación muestran que a las víctimas de violación a veces se las acusa de victimización. Apenas se ha estudiado el efecto de las características del autor en la culpabili- zación de las víctimas. En un experimento con una muestra comunitaria (N = 161) utilizando una metodo- logía de viñetas investigamos...

Odours have continuously been identified as effective memory cues to evoke past memories. The purpose of the present experiment was therefore to investigate if odour exposure during encoding and retrieval would facilitate memory recall. A 2 (Encoding: odour vs. no odour) x 2 (Retrieval: odour vs. no odour) between-subjects design was employed with...

PurposeTwo experiments were conducted to examine the effects of (1) child victims’ emotional expression during testimony and (2) the camera perspective used to record the testimony, on judgements of credibility. Methods Law students (N = 155 in Experiment 1; N = 86 in Experiment 2) watched a child harassment complainant provide a statement in an em...

Purpose. The blaming of rape victims can cause secondary victimization. It is of importance to investigate factor that might lead to victim blaming. This study investigated the effect of belief in a just world (BJW), gender of participant, and level of relationship closeness between victim and perpetrator on attributions of both victim and perpetra...

Victims of rape are sometimes blamed for the assaults against them. Research has examined primarily female victims; much less is known about men as victims and whether victim age affects attributions of victim blame. Furthermore, the study investigated the effects of Belief in a Just World (BJW) on blame attributions. Employing a vignette-type expe...

Purpose . Children's testimonies can be presented to the court in many different formats, for example, live, videotapes, closed‐circuit television (CCTV) or transcripts. However, little is known about how different presentation formats affect the observers' processing of the testimonies. This study investigated how two different presentation modes...

The study examined the effects of different presentation modes on child witnesses' experiences and adults' perception and assessments of the same witnesses. Child witnesses (N = 108) were interviewed about an event that they had either experienced or imagined. Adult mock jurors (N = 240) watched the children's testimonies live, via two-way closed-c...

Research has shown that cues to deception are more salient as an effect of strategic use of evidence (SUE) during interviews. This study examined the feasibility of the SUE-technique for eliciting cues to children's deception. Experiment 1 investigated verbal cues to deception as a function of early vs. late disclosure of evidence. Eighty-four chil...

The mechanisms behind the 'emotional victim effect' (i.e., that the emotionality of a rape victim's demeanor affects perceived credibility) are relatively unexplored. In this article, a previously neglected mechanism--observers' affective response to the victim--is proposed as an alternative to the traditional expectancy-violation account. The emot...

In this paper we focused on children's deception (10-12 years, Experiment 1), and adult's ability detect deception in children (Experiment 2). The self-presentational perspective (DePaulo, 1992) suggests that both liars and truth tellers will try to act in a convincing manner to be assessed as truth tellers. By asking unanticipated questions we put...

In this paper we focused on children's deception (10-12 years, Experiment 1), and adult's ability detect deception in children (Experiment 2). The self-presentational perspective (DePaulo, 1992) suggests that both liars and truth tellers will try to act in a convincing manner to be assessed as truth tellers. By asking unanticipated questions we put...