Complex questions asked by defense lawyers but not prosecutors predicts convictions in child abuse trials.

Evans, Angela; Lee, Ki-Young; Lyon, Thomas D.

doi:10.1007/s10979-008-9148-6

Cited by 47 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The law knows how to criticize the interviewing performance of professionals who work outside the www.annualreviews.org • Interviewing Children courtroom, but it has been slow to reform how children are questioned inside the courtroom. Prosecutors' questions tend to be closed-ended, leading to unelaborated responses from children , Stolzenberg & Lyon 2014, and their questions are often unnecessarily difficult (Evans & Lyon 2012) and as complex as defense attorneys' (Evans et al 2009). Prosecutors frequently fail to ask children about their reasons for failing to disclose (or why they disclosed when they did), and they do little to teach jurors how abuse perpetrators' behavior induces compliance and silence (Stolzenberg & Lyon 2014).…”

Section: Implications For the Legal Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interviewing Children

Lyon

2014

Annu. Rev. Law. Soc. Sci.

103

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This article reviews best practice for interviewing child witnesses. In most officially recognized abuse cases, the child previously disclosed abuse, making it possible to elicit disclosures without asking closed-ended questions. Interviewers nevertheless overuse closed-ended questions, which lead to short unelaborated responses, privilege the limited perspective of the interviewer, maximize the potential for linguistic difficulties, increase children's tendency to guess, and risk response biases. Interviewers can avoid closed-ended questions through narrative practice, in which interviewers ask children to narrate a recent innocuous event before introducing the abuse topic; cued invitations, in which interviewers repeat details reported by children and ask for elaboration; open-ended wh-questions; and interview instructions, including asking children to promise to tell the truth. A remaining challenge is how to elicit disclosures from reluctant children. Better understanding of the dynamics of abuse disclosure and optimal interviewing strategies can assist the legal system in assessing the veracity of children's reports. 73 Annu. Rev. Law. Soc. Sci. 2014.10:73-89. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org Access provided by Michigan State University Library on 02/06/15. For personal use only.

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Section: Implications For the Legal Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interviewing Children

Lyon

2014

Annu. Rev. Law. Soc. Sci.

103

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“…They may face the challenge of deciphering legal jargon, as well as linguistically complex questions that they are ill equipped to answer (as are many adults; Carter, Bottoms, & Levine, 1996;Perry et al, 1995). However, this might not undermine children's credibility, as one study of trial transcripts found that complex questions asked by defense attorneys predicted convictions, rather than acquittals in those cases (Evans, Lee, & Lyon, 2009). Nevertheless, children also may be required to offer testimony on concepts that are developmentally beyond their reach.…”

Section: Communication and Linguistic Abilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition and the Child Witness: Understanding the Impact of Cognitive Development in Forensic Contexts

Segovia¹,

Crossman²

2012

Current Topics in Children's Learning and Cognition

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“…Prior research has not directly explored these issues. It is likely, though, that there is wide variation in use of temporal structure across attorneys and cases, just as there is wide variation in attorney question complexity and question type (e.g., Evans, Lee, & Lyon, ; Klemfuss et al ., ; Zajac & Hayne, ). These variations may affect both children's responses and case outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relations between attorney temporal structure and children's response productivity in cases of alleged child sexual abuse

Klemfuss

Cleveland

Quas

et al. 2016

Legal Criminol Psychol

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Purpose Previous research has demonstrated that attorney question format relates to child witness’ response productivity. However, little work has examined the relations between the extent to which attorneys provide temporal structure in their questions, and the effects of this structure on children’s responding. The purpose of the present study was to address this gap in the literature in order to identify methods by which attorneys increase children’s response productivity on the stand without risking objections from opposing counsel for “calling for narrative answers”. Methods In the present study we coded criminal court transcripts involving child witnesses (5–18 years) for narrative structure in attorney questions and productivity in children’s responses. Half of the transcripts resulted in convictions, half in acquittals, balanced across key variables: child age, allegation severity, the child’s relationship to the perpetrator, and the number of allegations. Results Prosecutors and defense attorneys varied substantially in their questioning tactics. Prosecutors used more temporal structure in their questions and varied their questioning by the age of the child. These variations had implications for children’s response productivity. Conclusions Results indicate that temporal structure is a novel and viable method for enhancing children’s production of case-relevant details on the witness stand.

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Complex questions asked by defense lawyers but not prosecutors predicts convictions in child abuse trials.

Cited by 47 publications

References 19 publications

Interviewing Children

Interviewing Children

Cognition and the Child Witness: Understanding the Impact of Cognitive Development in Forensic Contexts

Relations between attorney temporal structure and children's response productivity in cases of alleged child sexual abuse

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