Child in the Eyes of the Jury - Assessing Mock Jurors' Perceptions of the Child Witness (From Children's Eyewitness Memory, P 142-154, 1987, Stephen J Ceci, et al, eds. - See NCJ-104752)

• NCJ Number: 104757
• Author(s): D F Ross; B S Miller; P B Moran
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 13 pages
• Sale Source: Springer-Verlag
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Studies using mock jurors and witnesses ranging from children to adults show that the witness's age influences the jurors' impressions of a witness, but it does not appear to influence jurors' judgments about the guilt or innocence of a defendant.

Abstract

When deciding about guilt, mock jurors apparently rely on other available evidence. Prior studies by Goodman and those of the present authors both produced this result. Goodman used simulations in which the witnesses were either 6, 10, or 30 years old. In the authors' study, college students watched a 50-minute videotape of a simulated court trial, based on an actual court transcript of a case involving cocaine found in the defendant's apartment. The videotapes were identical except for the age of the eyewitness, which was either an 8-year-old, a 21-year-old, or a 74-year-old male. The 8-year-old and the 74-year-old received more positive ratings than the 21-year-old, suggesting that the child appeared much more competent than expected for his age. However, the jurors did not weigh the child's testimony heavily in determining guilt. Further analysis also showed that jurors used different factors in assessing the credibility of the witnesses of different ages. Research recommendations and 34 references.