Jurors' perceptions of hearsay in child sexual abuse cases.

Myers, John E. B.; Redlich, Allison D.; Goodman, Gail S.; Prizmich, Lori P.; Imwinkelried, Edward J.

doi:10.1037/1076-8971.5.2.388

Cited by 108 publications

(111 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Thus the children studied by Sayfan et al were largely rated as having neutral expressions, while those studied by Wood et al were relaxed or neutral. These findings, like our own, underscore that children being interviewed about abuse do not behave as adults expect and this may have important implications for perceptions of children's credibility (e.g., Golding-Meadow & Singer, 2003;Myers et al, 1999;Regan & Baker, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Non-verbal behavior of children who disclose or do not disclose child abuse in investigative interviews

Katz¹,

Hershkowitz²,

Malloy³

et al. 2012

Child Abuse & Neglect

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a b s t r a c tObjective: The study focused on children's nonverbal behavior in investigative interviews exploring suspicions of child abuse. The key aims were to determine whether non-verbal behavior in the pre-substantive phases of the interview predicted whether or not children would disclose the alleged abuse later in the interview and to identify differences in the nonverbal behaviors of disclosing and non-disclosing children. Method: We studied DVD-recorded interviews of 40 alleged victims of child abuse. In all cases, there was external evidence strongly suggesting that abuse had occurred. However, half of the children disclosed abuse when interviewed using the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol, whereas the other half did not. Two raters, unaware whether or not the children disclosed, independently coded the videotapes for nonverbal indices of positive and negative emotions, stress, and physical disengagement in each 15-second unit of the introductory, rapport building, and substantive interview phases. Results: Indicators of stress and physical disengagement increased as the interviews progressed while indices of positive emotions decreased. Non-disclosers showed proportionately more physical disengagement than disclosers in both the introductory and substantive phases. Conclusions: Awareness of non-verbal behavior may help investigators identify reluctant children early in forensic interviews. Practice implications: There is substantial evidence that, when questioned by investigators, many children do not disclose that they have been abused. The early detection of reluctance to disclose may allow interviewers to alter their behavior, helping the children overcome their reluctance by providing non-suggestive support before the possibility of abuse is discussed. Of course, nonverbal behavior alone should not be used to assess children in investigative interviews. However, nonverbal cues may nonetheless provide additional information to interviewers and assist them in identifying reluctant children.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Non-verbal behavior of children who disclose or do not disclose child abuse in investigative interviews

Katz¹,

Hershkowitz²,

Malloy³

et al. 2012

Child Abuse & Neglect

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“…Research has shown that a child's age is one of the most influential factors in how mock jurors perceive the credibility of child witnesses. In sexual abuse cases, children who are younger than 12 years of age are typically perceived as more credible than adolescent and adult victims (Myers et al, 1999;Nightingale, 1993). When asked why, mock jurors often report that young children lack the cognitive ability and sexual knowledge that is typically needed to make a false allegation (Bottoms & Goodman, 1994;Duggan et al, 1989;Gabora, Spanos, & Joab 1993;Goodman, Bottoms, Hersocvici, & Shaver, 1989;Nightingale, 1993).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: the Effect of Truncated Testimony on Juror Decision‐making

Anderson

Gross

Sonne

et al. 2016

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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Many countries around the world have modified their legislation to allow child complainants of abuse to present their evidence-in-chief via pre-recorded videotape, or through closedcircuit-television (CCTV), rather than through live testimony, which has been shown to be stressful for children. With this modification, many countries also allow for childrens' videotaped evidence to be truncated for relevance or admissibility purposes. In the two experiments, we examined whether truncating testimony influenced how mock jurors rated the credibility of a 6-year-old child complainant when her testimony contained the primary core allegation only, or when the testimony was presented with either one or two additionalbut less plausible-allegations. We also examined how mock jurors rated the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Contrary to what we predicted, we found that participants believed the child's core allegation, regardless of whether or not it was presented with additional less plausible allegations. Moreover, jurors who read the transcripts containing multiple allegations of abuse were more likely to find the defendant guilty of the core allegation than were jurors who read the core allegation only. These findings suggest that the truncation of testimony may affect the outcome of a trial; however, more research is needed on the effects of truncated testimony on juror decision-making as we continue to try to make the criminal justice system as fair as possible for all of those involved.iii

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“…This question was addressed by John Myers et al (1999)Myers, Redlich, Goodman, Prizmich and Imwinkelried-in a questionnaire study of 248 American jurors (representing 42 juries), all of whom had just served as jurors in child molestation or child exploitation trials. At least one child testified live in court in each of these trials, as did at least one adult who testified about the child's out-of-court disclosure of abuse.…”

Section: Hearsay Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%