NCJ Number
187990
Journal
Legal and Criminological Psychology Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 65-83
Date Published
February 2001
Length
19 pages
Annotation
An experimental study conducted in the United Kingdom examined the success rate of well-trained raters in assessing the truthfulness of witness statements made by children aged 7-8 years, children aged 10-11 years, and adults.
Abstract
The raters assessed the statements for the presence of 15 of the 19 original Criteria-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) criteria discussed by Steller and Kohnknen in 1989. The study used a three by three design. One third of the participants took part in a photography session, one third watched a video recording of a peer taking part in a photography session, and one third were party to a verbal description regarding the photography session but did not take part in it and did not see a video recording. The first two groups then gave truthful accounts of their experiences in a subsequent interview. The experimenter asked the third group to lie during the interviews and to try to convince the interviewers that they also had taken part in a photography session. Results revealed that the CBCA criteria distinguished between truthful accounts based on actual involvement and fabricated accounts. However, the criteria did not significantly distinguish between truthful accounts based on watching a video recording and fabricated reports. In addition, CBCA was equally effective in distinguishing between participated truthful accounts and fabricated accounts for all three age groups. The analysis concluded that CBCA was useful in distinguishing between truthful accounts based on direct experience and fabricated accounts, and between truthful accounts based on actual experience and truthful accounts based on watching a video. Finally, the CBCA was equally effective with adults and children. Tables and 39 references (Author abstract modified)