The Credibility of Children as Witnesses in a Simulated Child Sex Abuse Trial

Duggan, Lorna; Aubrey, Moss; Doherty, Eric; Isquith, Peter Κ.; Levine, Murray; Scheiner, Janine

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-8832-6_5

Cited by 65 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Moreover, the current results document a situation that can lead to agreement among peers even when none of the children is providing an accurate account. Because judges and juries are known to take agreement among witnesses as a marker of accurate testimony (Duggan, Aubrey, Doherty, Isquith, & Levine, 1989), the results of this study and other recent work (Principe & Ceci, 2002;Principe et al, 2006) demonstrate that fact finders should be cautious in using corroboration among witnesses as a criterion for gauging accuracy.…”

Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Rumor mongering and remembering: How rumors originating in children’s inferences can affect memory

Principe

Guiliano

Root

2008

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Section: Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Rumor mongering and remembering: How rumors originating in children’s inferences can affect memory

Principe

Guiliano

Root

2008

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…Being a parent may matter for individuals' perceptions since close and frequent involvement with children increases affinity towards child victims in sexual assault (Duggan et al 1989). Respondent's student status may matter for perceptions of adult-teen sexual relationships since undergraduate students may be closer in age and maturity to the fictional students and teenagers depicted in the scenarios (Fromuth et al 2001), whereas graduate students, with more time since their high school experiences, may have a different perspective about the relationships.…”

Section: Other Influences On Perceptions Of Adult-teen Sexual Relatiomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sexual Double Standard and Gender Differences in Predictors of Perceptions of Adult-Teen Sexual Relationships

Sahl

Keene

2010

Sex Roles

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We study gender differences and the effects of adult's gender, an authority gap, and an age gap on university students' perceptions of adult-teen sexual relationships. We specifically examine: the adult's criminality, damage to the teen's reputation, and emotional damage to the teen. We use a sample of 2,871 students from a Southwestern university in the U.S. who judged vignettes describing an adult-teen encounter. OLS regression demonstrated that women judged the scenarios more negatively than men. Further analyses found relationships between the experimental variables and each dependent variable and interactions by respondent's gender and among the experimental variables. Results demonstrate a sexual double standard and highlight respondent's gender, the age gap, and the authority context for perceptions of adult-teen relationships.

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“…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). For example, found that younger children were perceived as more honest when they alleged sexual abuse due to their lack of sexual knowledge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recall that the additional allegations in Experiment 2 had more explicit details and these details were of a highly unusual sexual nature. It is possible that participants used their preconceived ideas about young children's lack of sexual knowledge as the overriding factor in making their final determination regarding the defendant's guilt (Bottoms & Goodman, 1994;Duggan et al, 1989;Gabora, Spanos, & Joab 1993;Goodman, Bottoms, Hersocvici, & Shaver, 1989;Nightingale, 1993). Clearly, the interaction between allegation order and allegation content is an area for further research.…”

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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The Credibility of Children as Witnesses in a Simulated Child Sex Abuse Trial

Cited by 65 publications

References 61 publications

Rumor mongering and remembering: How rumors originating in children’s inferences can affect memory

Rumor mongering and remembering: How rumors originating in children’s inferences can affect memory

The Sexual Double Standard and Gender Differences in Predictors of Perceptions of Adult-Teen Sexual Relationships

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

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