Psychological Evaluation of Children’s Eyewitness Testimonies in Criminal Law
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Abstract
The article deals with the theoretical and practical problems of the psychological evaluation of children’s eyewitness testimonies. The conclusion concerning validity of testimonies may have an impact on judgment, while the judgment may influence person’s life, therefore it is very important to evaluate thoroughly the statements of witnesses. The purpose of this study is to focus attention on procedure of evaluation of children’s statements, to examine the content analysis (reality) criteria and the validity checklist, which are extremely important in the process of evaluation of eyewitness testimonies.
Testimony of children causes a lot of problems both in investigative and trial periods. One of them is ability to prevent psychological trauma of encountering the accused person that abused the child and may have an opportunity to do it in the future. Another problem is that traumatizing event can impair the child’s ability to remember and affect his willingness to tell the truth. In addition to that, negative attitude of lawyers towards child witnesses may cause difficulties also.
There is a substantial debate about what researchers can say when testifying in court. In the area of children’s testimonial competence, there is no caveat more important than informing the court about the various reliability risks inherent in research, pointing out the qualifications that may limit the application of findings to a particular case. Recent research demonstrates that forensic interviewers can be trained to conduct ‘better interviews’, in which fewer suggestive questions are asked and in which greater proportions of the information are elicited using open-ended prompts.
The article also deals with assessing the latest literature on psychological evaluation of statements, including the newest findings on experts’ decision-making process and influence of various dependent variables on evaluation validity.
Testimony of children causes a lot of problems both in investigative and trial periods. One of them is ability to prevent psychological trauma of encountering the accused person that abused the child and may have an opportunity to do it in the future. Another problem is that traumatizing event can impair the child’s ability to remember and affect his willingness to tell the truth. In addition to that, negative attitude of lawyers towards child witnesses may cause difficulties also.
There is a substantial debate about what researchers can say when testifying in court. In the area of children’s testimonial competence, there is no caveat more important than informing the court about the various reliability risks inherent in research, pointing out the qualifications that may limit the application of findings to a particular case. Recent research demonstrates that forensic interviewers can be trained to conduct ‘better interviews’, in which fewer suggestive questions are asked and in which greater proportions of the information are elicited using open-ended prompts.
The article also deals with assessing the latest literature on psychological evaluation of statements, including the newest findings on experts’ decision-making process and influence of various dependent variables on evaluation validity.
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Articles
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Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
