Trauma-Informed Investigations Field Guide

This Field Guide is designed to help investigators understand and address the potential effects of trauma on witnesses who have endured widespread, sustained and extremely grave crimes directed against entire populations. The trauma-informed approach reflected in this Guide is meant to assist investigators to elicit from witnesses the most complete and coherent account of events possible, while at the same time safeguarding the well-being of interviewees and interviewers alike. Though written with the particular context of Iraq and the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da›esh/ISIL (UNITAD) in mind, it is hoped that the broader insights in this Guide may assist investigators of international crimes in any context. More broadly, the insights arising from a trauma-informed approach to interviewing may provide a deeper understanding of the effects of trauma on testimony in the courtroom and how it should be evaluated.