Title: Psychology 185
1Psychology 185
- Applied Developmental Psychology
2Topic 3.
- Are Children Credible Witnesses in Legal Cases?
3Why do we need children as witnesses in legal
cases?
- They are victims of crimes (e.g., sexual or
physical abuse or neglect) - They are witnesses to crimes against others
- They are parties concerned and affected in a
legal case
4General legal issues
- Common law versus civil law
- Criminal court versus civil court
- Sworn testimony versus unsworn testimony
- Court testimony versus hearsay
- Voir Dire
5History of children as witnesses
- Early cases
- Sweden (1668-1676) Sorcery
- 16 adults burned and 27 beheaded
- US (1690s) Salem witch trial
- the Crucibles
- 20 executed
6History of children as witnesses
- Recent cases
- Child sexual and physical abuse
- 500, 000 cases of child sexual abuse, of which
about 25 were substantiated (1993) - 100,000 children testifying per year in North
American - 50 of witnesses testifying about sexual abuse
were preschoolers
7History of children as witnesses
- Recent cases
- The Little Rascals Day Care case in North
Carolina - Kelly Michaels case in New Jersey
- Martensville case in Saskatchewan, Canada
8History of children as witnesses
- Childrens testimony before late 1980s
- Children must show understanding of oath
- Jury warning about childrens inherent
unreliability as witnesses - Inadmissibility of hearsay evidence from children
- Childrens testimony must be corroborated by
other evidence
9History of children as witnesses
- Childrens testimony after late 1980s
- Jury warning about childrens inherent
unreliability as witnesses is abolished - Childrens testimony alone can be sufficient to
be admitted as credible evidence - children do not have to show the understanding of
oath - Some willingness to use close-circuit television
or screen - Some willingness to admit hearsay evidence from
children in civil cases but not criminal cases
10What is credibility?
- A psychological and legal construct that refers
to the general believability of witness testimony - Capability
- Reliability
- Suggestibility
- Veracity
11Credibility
- Capability
- Whether children have the general cognitive
ability to - appreciate their role and obligation to tell the
truth - remember, understand, and communicate information
- Reliability
- Whether child witnesses can accurately recall and
consistently report a witnessed event
12Credibility
- Suggestibility
- Whether child witnesses are susceptible to
suggestions or leading questioning that could
distort their memory or testimony - Veracity (truthfulness)
- Whether children can deliberately fabricate or
conceal evidence
13Are Children Credible Witnesses?
- Are children capable?
- Are children reliable?
- Are children suggestible?
- Are children truthful?
14Are children capable?
- Knowledge of the obligation to tell the truth
- The concept of truth- and lie-telling
- 3-5 know the basic element of the concept
- 6-9 know the critical element of the concept
- 10-11 reach the adult level
- Moral judgment of truth- and lie-telling
- from 3 years onward, children know the negativity
of lying
15Are children capable?
- Knowledge of the obligation to tell the truth
- Promise to tell the truth
- 3-4 have difficulty, especially with promise
- 5-6 can give examples
- 7-8 can define and give examples
16Are children capable?
- Communication ability
- By 4-5 years of age, children have nearly
mastered their first language, with the following
exceptions - passive voice
- why questions -causation motive
- clauses
- tag questions and double negatives
- they have difficulty in saying I dont know
when they do not understand a question - legal terminology (e.g., swear, court)
17Are children capable?
- Cognitive understanding
- Time and space
- Number
- Causation
- Transductive reasoning
18Are children reliable?
- Memory accuracy
- Short-term memory
- Long-term memory
- knowledge
- scripts
19A script demo
- Rest, tired, awake, dream, snore, bed, eat,
slumber, sound, comfort, wake, night
20A script demo
- Please indicate whether the following words
appeared in the list - Computer
- Sleep
- Tired
- Rest, tired, awake, dream, snore, bed, eat,
slumber, sound, comfort, wake, night
21Are children reliable?
- Preschoolers recall less but highly accurate
concerning central detail - Amount of accurate and inaccurate recall
increases with age - Retention children retain accurate information
when delay is lt 1 month, but their accuracy
declines faster than adults as delay increases
preschoolers declined faster than school aged
children
22Are children reliable?
- Childrens memory of faces
- Develops early
- Subject to interference from changes in
appearance until 11-12 years of age - paraphernalia effect
- Subject to interference from procedural factors
- line-up procedures
23Line-up procedures
- In-person line-up
- Simultaneous line-up
- Show-up
- Photo line-up
- Simultaneous line-up
- Sequential line-up
- Show-up
24Simultaneous lineup identification (Lindsay since
1980s)
25Simultaneous lineup identification (Lindsay since
1980s)
26Memory in Childhood
27Simultaneous lineup identification (Lindsay since
1980s)
28Simultaneous lineup identification (Lindsay since
1980s)
29Are children suggestible?
- Age factor Preschoolers are more suggestible
than school aged children and adults who are also
suggestible - Interviewer bias Interviewer prior belief
affects the outcome of interview if suggestive
questions are used
30Are children suggestible?
- Interviewing techniques
- Guided imagery
- Stereotype induction
- Interviewing style (warm versus cold)
- Anatomically correct dolls naturally elicit
sexually explicit behaviors when used with other
instruments (e.g., fingers, spoons, stethoscopes)
even if child not abused
31Are children suggestible?
- Interviewing techniques
- Anatomically correct dolls
- Abused and nonabused children perform similarly
and professionals cannot differentiate - Naturally elicit sexually explicit behaviors when
used with other instruments (e.g., fingers,
spoons, stethoscopes) even if child not abused
(3-18) - Anatomically correct dolls do not produced better
memory reports than regular dolls or increased
levels of disclosure
32Are children suggestible?
- Nature of events
- Children are more suggestible about peripheral
events than central events - However, they are also suggestible about central
events if they are of sexual nature - Individual differences
- Cognitive (knowledge base, memory)
- Social (compliance, self-esteem)
33Are children suggestible?
- Repeated interviews
- Across interviews versus within an interview
- Neutral repeated interviews lead to more
disclosure - Repeated suggestive interview results in false
memory (its cessation leads to recovery) - Repeated suggestive interview results in highly
credible testimony
34Are children truthful?
- Early notions
- Assumptions underlying competence assumption
- Veracity of children
- Do children lie
- To conceal their transgression?
- To conceal their parents transgression?
- To fabricate a story as coached by parents?
35Can adults correctly evaluate childrens
credibility?
- Adults judgement of credibility is determined
by - Witness age age by content interaction
- Juror gender females are more pro child victim
than males - Victim gender female sexual victims are more
believed than male victims by male jurors - Corroborating testimony more guilty verdict
- Defendant factors prior, similar criminal record
leads to more guilty verdict - Adults are poor at detecting the
accuracy/veracity of childrens testimony
36Implications for legal investigative practice
- Competence examination
- Procedure needs to be reformed or abolished
- Children need to be asked to promise to tell the
truth before any testimony - Credibility judgment
- Jury instruction is needed
- Legal training
- Knowledge about child development
- Child interview techniques
- Child-victim friendly procedures
- Lie-detection training