Suggestive interviewing in the McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels daycare abuse cases: A case study

Nadja Schreiber, Florida International University
Lisa D. Bellah, University of Texas At El Paso
Yolanda Martinez, University of Texas at El Paso
Kristin A. McLaurin, University of Texas at El Paso
Renata Strok, University of Texas at El Paso
Sena Garven, University of Texas at El Paso
James M. Wood, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract

In the 1980s and early 1990s the United States witnessed an outbreak of bizarre "daycare abuse" cases in which groups of young children leveled allegations of sexual and Satanic abuse against their teachers. In the present study, quantitative analyses were performed on interview transcripts from two highly publicized daycare cases (McMartin Preschool and Kelly Michaels) and a Child Protection Service (CPS). Confirming the impression of prior commentators, systematic analyses of 54 interviews indicated that suggestive techniques were much more common in the McMartin and Michaels interviews than in the CPS interviews.