Children's Testimonies
Every year some hundreds of thousands of children may be involved in the legal system. Most encounters have been with sexual assault cases. Although some children may be capable of giving an accurate testimony most are vulnerable to having their testimony and their memories distorted to the point where the truth may never be known. Children have problems distinguishing reality from fantasy, making them susceptible to the coaching of an authority figure. Award winning development psychologist Stephen J. Ceci, Ph.D., of Cornell University has conducted a laboratory research, studying some factors that can affect a child's testimony. These conclude: Interviewer bias-When the interviewer (parent, therapist, investigator) believes he or she knows what happened and attempts to get the child to confirm it, ignoring anything the child says that does not conform with the interviewer's bias and encouraging anything that does. Repeated Questions-Children, especially younger children are more likely to change their answers when asked the same yes or no question repeated during a single interview. Answers from children to yes or no questions repeated over several interviews are likely to become more firm and confid
As in this case and other cases that involve children as eyewitnesses, if we are to give any weight to a child's testimony we need to learn how to improve a child's testimony. Through research we are able to find important principles. That night the little girl had nightmares and was screaming continuously. The cases of young children, courts have turned away from asking children to make such decisions. Recollection, Testimony, and Lying in Early Childhood. It is also found that regardless of the apparent unstable memory and ability to convince a jury, a jury is less often to convict when a case rests on a child eyewitness. (Ross et al) From the results it was seen the subjects held a rather negative stereotype of the child eyewitness. "Using nothing but specific open-ended questions may be appropriate for a certain child in a certain situation but not for another child of a different age and background, or for a child who is afraid to tell versus one who is prone to fantasy, or for a child questioned about events in the distant past. Ross et al fifty college students were asked whether they believed a child eyewitness would be more or less likely to render accurate testimony than that of an adult. Obviously with this type of emphasis on children testifying in court the way they were interviewed is of concern. Following her story two detectives, a social worker, and a physician interviewed the little girl. Many researchers are trying to come up with techniques to help children give accurate testimonies of their experiences. An interviewer telling a child that the [suspect] is a bad man who does bad things is an example of stereotype induction. "When asked confusing, age inappropriate questions, as often happens when lawyers us "legalese" in cross examination of a child witness, the number of errors increase.
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