The research literature on children’s testimony in the courtroom, and the factors that either help or hinder consistent and accurate accounts, is a vast one. This short booklet, will benefit child services training and self study.
Resource
Children & the Law: Courtroom Research Basics for Busy Practitioners
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This short booklet takes a look at landmark findings on the subject of children’s disclosure of abuse and procedural factors that affect their testimony. The research findings, from the psychology of law literature, are detailed for the reader in a light and accessible way.
The booklet attends to key behavioural research findings on the following:
1. Case in point: Telling in abuse cases
2. Disclosing abuse: Some findings about why children tell and why they remain silent
3. Non-disclosure and disclosure delay
4. Disclosing abuse: A model of children’s disclosure
5. Factors associated with delay of disclosure (Goodman-Browne et al. 2003)
6. Age and gender: Some criticisms
7. Intrafamilial v. extrafamilial abuse
8. Fear of negative consequences
9. Perceptions of responsibility
10. Testimonial procedures and the reluctance to come forward
11. Improving child witnesses’ memory and minimising the reluctance to testify
12. Testifying via CCTV
13. The presence of a support person
Finally, the booklet ends with a critical evaluation of the topic, and tags notes of reference for further supplementary reading.
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Michelle Cowley-Cunningham
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