Interviewing Children
8/7/2025 10:19:00 AMFrankfort Police Department
20602 Lincoln-Way Ln., Frankfort, IL. 60423
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
8:00 am till 4:00 pm
Course Description: This course has been designed to provide officers, investigators, school resource officers, and/or juvenile officers with additional methods and information for interviewing children in criminal investigations. This highly interactive course will provide a framework for interviewing children who are victims or witnesses to crimes. Our instructor conducts over 125 forensic interviews of children per year. Emphasis will be placed on practical exercises conducted throughout the course. This course will utilize case vignettes for practical applications.
Topics Discussed:
- Interview settings for children
- Child development and cognitive abilities – What should your expectations be for different age groups
- Cognitive evaluation
- Types of questions - from open-ended to leading
- Interviewing aides
- Stages of a child interview
- Establishing timelines with children
- Blocks to interviewing children – Disabilities and Mental Health issues
While issues of domestic violence to children and sexual assault of children will be discussed, it is the intent of this course to teach students to utilize these interview techniques in additional situations.
Instructor: Danielle Butts is the Founder and Executive Director of All Our Children’s Advocacy Center. She has been a Forensic Interviewer for 20 years and conducted over 4,000 interviews. Danielle is a member of the Cook County Child Abuse Advisory Board and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Illinois Legislative Committee. She has been a law enforcement instructor for over 15 years and currently teaches; Interviewing Children, Juvenile Investigations, Sexual Assault and SRO.
Posted In: New Class Added, back to News
