Proposal

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Psychology 306 (2008) Psychology and Family Law
Lectures 24 - 29
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OUTLINE
Part 1 Assessing custody and placement of
children
Lectures 24, 25, 26 Chapter 5
Part 2 Child witnesses
Lectures 27, 28, 29 Chapter 8
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Part 2 Child witnesses

• Child as victim of sexual, mental, physical abuse
• Custody disputes
• Bystanders/witnesses at a crime scene

Primary question around reliability and
competence of children as witnesses
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Part 2 Child witnesses

• Common beliefs about childrens evidence
• The child at the crime scene
• Interviewing child witnesses
• The child in court

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• Common beliefs about childrens evidence

• Common view by legal profession and general
  public is of skepticism towards childrens
  evidence
• Judge Diemont in Woji v Santam Insurance Co
• Questioned trustworthiness of child evidence ito
• Childs power of observation, recollection,
  narration
• Capacity of the child ito
• Is the child intelligent enough to observe
• Recollection depends on age
• Narration/communication depends on whether child
  can understand questions posed, and to frame and
  express intelligent answers

• Psychologists and researchers have subjected
  Judge Diemonts comments to empirical
  investigation
• Research studies (in last 50 years) have led to
  significant reforms in criminal justice system in
  the way in which childrens evidence is gathered,
  evaluated and presented in court

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• Common beliefs about childrens evidence

• 3 foci of this section
• Issue of childrens observation and storage
  capacity
• Childrens ability to retrieve information from
  memory accurately during questioning
• Challenges confronted when children give evidence
  in court

2. The child at the crime scene
3. Interviewing child witnesses
4. The child in court
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2. The child at the crime scene

• General trend about younger children at crime
  scene
• encode less detail from a crime scene than older
  children and adults
• more likely to misperceive events and hence
  encode erroneous details
• attentional skills, linguistic ability and schema
  use can significantly affect the nature, quality
  and amount of information encoded at a crime scene

• Development of prefrontal cortex (responsible for
  cognitive tasks entailing goal directed thinking
  and beh) only becomes fully developed during
  young adulthood.
• The ability to focus on relevant stimuli
  therefore changes drastically as child develops
  (Berk, 2000).
• Until full development of prefrontal cortex,
  children may experience attentional difficulties
  that could affect ability to encode information,
  and also ability to understand questions posed
  during an investigation
• Prefrontal cortical development at 3 and 7 yrs
  will also improve attentional capacity
• Familiarity with crime scene
• Level of interest in event taking place

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2. The child at the crime scene

• General trend about younger children at crime
  scene
• encode less detail from a crime scene than older
  children and adults
• more likely to misperceive events and hence
  encode erroneous details
• attentional skills, linguistic ability and schema
  use can significantly affect the nature, quality
  and amount of information encoded at a crime scene

• Language also plays a critical role in
  determining quality/quantity of information that
  children can encode to memory
• Can a child attach meaningful language (semantic
  encoding) to what is perceived?
• However, more information can be encoded than can
  be expressed linguistically

Hence, use of anatomically correct dolls, play
therapy and other projective techniques (eg, DAP,
KFD) into investigative process although there
is no evidence to suggest that these projective
techniques significantly improve accuracy and
reliability of evidence gathered from children.
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Part 2 Child witnesses

• Common beliefs about childrens evidence
• The child at the crime scene
• Interviewing child witnesses
• The child in court

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3. Interviewing child witnesses
1992 Memorandum of Good Practice (MGP) - UK

• Has impacted on the way in which childrens
  evidence is gathered, evaluated and presented in
  court in several countries
• NB finding from psychological research around MGP
  is that the accuracy, reliability and
  completeness of evidence is a product of both
• Childs level of cognitive functioning, and
• Manner in which the investigative interview is
  conducted

• Use of MGP in SA is recommended as benchmark, and
  that SA should develop its own guidelines

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3. Interviewing child witnesses
1992 Memorandum of Good Practice (MGP) - UK

• Recommends interview be conducted systematically
  with following guidelines
• Interviews conducted as soon as practical to do
  so
• Interview setting informal
• Conducted by interviewers trained to talk to
  children
• Specific questions only asked after child has
  been given the chance to tell his/her own story
  in own words
• Phased approach (open ended questions at first,
  moving to more specific direct questions at the
  end)
• Duration each interview session should not be
  longer than 1hr

• Based on research confirming
• Detrimental effects of delay on childrens memory
• Role of contextual factors in childrens
  testimony
• Effect of question type and technique on
  reliability of evidence

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3. Interviewing child witnesses
1992 Memorandum of Good Practice (MGP) - UK
Phased interview approach of MGP implementation
guidelines
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• 1. Establish rapport with the child
• Build warm positive relationship
• Sets tone for assessment
• Helps increase accuracy of information provided
• Assess childs level of knowledge and linguistic
  competence
• Establish ground rules
• The purpose of the interview
• That its OK to say I dont know
• Child doesnt have to answer questions he/she
  doesnt understand, but should provide as much
  information as possible
• Establish the importance of telling the truth

• 2. Ask the child to tell you everything about the
  case
• Encourage child to give own account of the events
• Verbal and non-verbal cues should be withheld by
  interviewer about the NB of certain aspects of
  information
• Interviewer should also not communicate elements
  of surprise and/or doubt about information
• Interviewer provides neutral feedback to
  encourage free narration

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• 3. Ask open-ended questions
• Allow child to provide more detailed, more
  accurate and less ambiguous answers

• 4. Ask closed, specific, but non-leading
  questions
• Interviewers should be cautious about
• Multiple choice options to closed questions
• Passive questions (eg, Were you angered by
  him?)
• Negative questions (eg, Did you not tell him to
  not do that?
• Questions using specific legal and sexual terms
• Questions involving dates, times, duration of
  events, frequency of occurrence, measurement and
  location

• 5. Close the interview
• Interviewer should leave child in a positive
  state of mind
• Achieved via thanking child for time, answering
  questions, answering questions the child might
  have, and ensuring the child can contact the
  interviewer post the interview should he/she wish
  to

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• SUGGESTIBILITY
• The act of impressing something (an idea,
  attitudes or desired action) on the mind of
  another
• Children under 6 are especially vulnerable to
  negative effects of suggestibility when
• Incorrect information is repeatedly suggested to
  a child by a person considered knowledgeable and
  powerful
• Incorrect post-event information is presented to
  a child by parents, media, family, psychologist
  etc

Phased interview approach of MGP NB points

• Increases accuracy, reliability and completeness
  of evidence gathering process
• Is likely to be stressful/painful for the child
• Could be affected by
• Strength of childs memory of the event
• Number of times a child is interviewed about the
  event
• Contamination of childs memory about the event
  from media, parents, peers
• Childs own interpretation of the interaction
  with the interviewer

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4. The child in court
Intermediaries and closed circuit TV
Factors pertaining to court room environment
Criminal Law Amendment Act 35 of 1991

• Alien room to a child
• Strangers dressed in robes
• Possible accused in courtroom where child is the
  victim
• Serious, intimidating atmosphere
• For children, courtroom envt is therefore not
  conducive to giving testimony

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4. The child in court
Criminal Law Amendment Act 35 of 1991
Intermediaries and closed circuit TV

• Use of intermediaries and closed-circuit tv now
  standard with all children unless there are
  compelling reasons not to do so (clarified by
  Sexual Offences Act 2007)

• This means
• Children give evidence in a separate room
• Room is informally arranged and child-friendly
• Video camera is mounted to the wall to record
  child and intermediary, with a live feed to the
  courtroom
• Intermediary uses earphones to link to the court
  room, and relay questions to the child
• Courtroom has a TV, and members of the court will
  hear what is being said in the separate room
• Prevents undue stress on the part of the child

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4. The child in court
Criminal Law Amendment Act 35 of 1991
Intermediaries and closed circuit TV

• PREVENTION OF UNDUE STRESS
• Child wont
• Be intimidated by courtroom environment,
• Face possible contact with offender
• the younger the child, the more likely the stress
  will be undue, although
• depending on the nature of the offence and/or the
  childs relationship to the offender, older
  children could also suffer undue stress when
  testifying in court
• childs developmental stage and consequent
  language development are also related and NB to
  preventing undue stress

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• SUMMARY OF FACTORS TO CONSIDER AROUND UNDUE
  STRESS
• Age and developmental stage of child
• Nature of the offence
• Aggravating factors (eg, physical injuries)
• Relationship between child and accused
• Childs emotional state
• Effects of court appearance
• Childs language ability

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4. The child in court

• Carson (1995) identified 3 categories of problems
  children experience with
• the court environment
• Age-inappropriate vocabulary
• Complex syntax
• General ambiguity

• Function of intermediary
• To convey the essence and purpose of questions to
  children
• Removing all hostility and aggression from
  questions (so, the intermediary is a form of
  defense against the defense
• Reword question in a child-friendly manner
• Ensure child understands question
• Ensure court understands childs response
• Uses age appropriate vocabulary
• Simple syntax formulate questions in
  age-appropriate manner
• Decrease ambiguity