Research and issues in using anatomical dolls

Abstract

The anatomical dolls have emerged as a promising, but controversial tool in child sexual abuse investigations to assist young children in describing what has happened to them. However, research on issues of doll usage by professionals, structuring the doll interviews and interpreting children's responses to the dolls has been lacking. The Anatomical Doll Project was designed to address these issues and data from three phases of the Project are presented in this paper. Phase I is a study of various professionals, interpretations of young children's interactions with the dolls. In Phase II interviewing guidelines were developed. Finally, a normative study of of 209 preschool-aged children who have not been referred for sexual abuse was conducted in Phase III to examine curiosity and play behaviors with the dolls.