NCJ Number
113138
Journal
Policing Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1988) Pages: 130-143
Date Published
1988
Length
14 pages
Annotation
A series of studies have examined issued related to the accuracy and reliability of child witnesses using live-event or observational methodologies with ecological and forensic relevance.
Abstract
Results indicate that even 4- to 5-year-olds are able to resist misleading questions and suggestive questioning. Children's recall errors generally have involved forgetting things that had happened, rather than fabricating things that had not; although some evidence also points to increased suggestibility when leading questions were used. Other studies have shown that younger children expressed no less confidence than older children, although they were less accurate, and that highly confident child witnesses were perceived as more credible by jurors. Another study indicates that attempts to manipulate the confidence level through positive or negative feedback are successful with older children and adults, but not with younger children. Work also has focused on developing a systematic investigative procedure for interviewing child sexual abuse victims. One approach, the statement validity analysis, involves an interview and subsequent analysis of truthfulness in terms of specified content criteria (e.g., logical structure, specific content and details, offense-specific elements). Other studies have examined the effects of stress, including that associated with various criminal justice procedures, on the accuracy of child witnesses, as well as the attitudes of a variety of professionals toward child witness credibility. 4 references.