Do case outcomes change when investigative interviewing practices change?

To determine whether the introduction of evidence-based practice for interviewing child witnesses was accompanied by changes in the disposition of cases in which sexual abuse was suspected, we compared cases in which the investigative interviews of 3- to 14-year-old alleged victims were conducted either before (n 350) or after (n 410) investigators had been taught to use the NICHD Protocol. Analyses showed that when charges were filed, both pre-Protocol and Protocol interviews were highly (and similarly) likely to yield guilty pleas to one or more counts. However, charges were more likely to be filed when interviewers had been trained to use the Protocol; Protocol interviews were therefore associated with more guilty pleas than non-Protocol interviews. When cases were tried, furthermore, Protocol cases were more likely to yield guilty verdicts. These results point to important implications for policies concerning the investigation of suspected crimes involving young witnesses.