RADAR (Recognizing Abuse Disclosures And Responding) is a structured, child-friendly model for interviewing children and adolescents in cases of suspected child maltreatment.  To ensure interview quality and ease of learning, the model provides suggested scripting for novice interviewers and scaffolding for more experienced interviewers, while offering sufficient flexibility to accommodate varying types of maltreatment experiences, developmental levels, and disclosure histories.  By design, RADAR places special emphasis on forensic balance, with the dual objective of minimizing false positive as well as false negative errors in case decisions.  RADAR is adapted from the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol developed by Michael Lamb and colleagues, the Cognitive Interview developed by Ronald Fisher and Edward Geiselman, and 80 years of combined experience in child forensic interviewing by the RADAR Model developers.

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Age Range                                                                              

RADAR works best with individuals who are functioning developmentally at age 5 and above. For preschool ages 3 - 5 1/2 see RADAR Jr.

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Approved Use                                                                              

Approved use of the RADAR model requires completion of authorized RADAR training. Ongoing peer supervision with experienced RADAR interviewers is highly recommended to maintain model fidelity. 

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RADAR-trained interviewers can email Scott Rodriguez (srodriguez@radarmodels.com) to obtain the latest model version. 

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The latest model version is RADAR v 11.0  January 2021