NCJ Number
173452
Date Published
1995
Length
90 pages
Annotation
This monograph presents three research studies relating to juvenile witnesses in Australia, with emphasis on judicial attitudes toward child witnesses, the perceptions of child witnesses and their parents, and impacts on the prosecution process in New South Wales.
Abstract
The first research study focuses on judicial concerns about the competence of child witnesses and the perceived need to provide special arrangements to meet children's needs. The second study reports the opinions of child witnesses and their parents about their experience at court; the study was conducted as part of the efforts of a sexual assault review committee. Findings highlighted the importance of the judicial role in children's perceptions, in that children's perceptions that the judge was fair were clearly related to their opinions about the fairness of the defense attorney and of the way they were handled in court. The final study examines the way cases of child sexual abuse are prosecuted in New South Wales, with emphasis on the changes that have occurred in prosecution over the last decade. Figures, tables, footnotes, appended instruments, and reference lists