The Emotional Child Witness: Effects on Juror Decision‐making

Abstract

Despite wide variations in child witness behavior while on the stand, little research has focused on how that behavior influences jurors' perceptions of the child's credibility or the case itself. In the current study, the impact of a child's emotional displays on credibility judgments and verdict preferences was examined in jury-eligible college students and jurors released from jury duty. No significant differences emerged in perceptions or verdicts based on whether a child was shown as crying or not while participants read a transcript of the child's testimony. However, participants who rated the child as more emotional (regardless of whether the image showed a crying child) were more likely to render guilty verdicts, were more certain of guilt, and found the child more credible and the defendant less credible than participants who rated the child as less emotional. Also, when the child was perceived as low in emotion, older children were rated as less credible than younger children. The results have implications for understanding how children's emotional displays and jurors' perceptions of children's emotionality influence decisions in sexual abuse cases.

Empathy's Relation to Appraisal of the Emotional Child Witness

“…In a seminal study, Regan and Baker () established that mock jurors expect female victims to evince negative emotions (i.e., crying) and that the mock jurors then use the expression of negative emotions as an indicator of victim credibility. Other studies have replicated the finding that child sexual abuse victims' emotional display of sadness predicts mock jurors' ratings of victim believability (Cooper et al, ; Golding et al, ) and victim credibility (Wessel, Eilertsen, Langnes, Magnussen, & Melinder, ; Wessel, Magnussen, & Melinder, ). Studies diverge as to which levels of negative emotion (e.g., tears vs. hysterical crying) predict increased or decreased believability (Golding et al, ; Landström et al, ; Wessel et al, ).…”

“…Yet, victims' actual physical appearance, that is, their emotional expressions, may not match these expectations (Sayfan, Mitchell, Goodman, Eisen, & Qin, ). Given that these expectations may influence interpretations of victims' emotional states in the legal context, as well as important decisions regarding victim believability and defendant guilt (Cooper et al, ; Landström, Ask, Sommar, & Willén, ), it is vital to statistically test models of these relations.…”

“…Although a child victim's display of negative emotion surely influences many adults, it appears that adults differ as to how emotional they perceive a victim to be, even when viewing the exact same picture of a child victim. Cooper et al () presented adults with a child sexual abuse case that varied as to the child's age, gender, and emotion expressed (calm vs. crying). Participants who interpreted the calm child as high in emotion rated the child as more believable, and the defendant as less believable and more likely to be guilty, than participants who interpreted either the calm or crying child as less distressed.…”

“…Participants who interpreted the calm child as high in emotion rated the child as more believable, and the defendant as less believable and more likely to be guilty, than participants who interpreted either the calm or crying child as less distressed. Thus, adults' inferences of the child's actual emotional experience (i.e., how emotional the adult inferred the child really to be) significantly predicted the perceived believability of both the child and the defendant, as well as the latter's guilt (Cooper et al, ).…”

“…Empathizing with another person may play a key role in how one interprets, or whether one feels impelled to look behind, the outward emotional appearance (Zaki, ). Although significant research exists on adults' judgments of the emotional experience (i.e., true feelings) of child sexual abuse victims (e.g., Cooper, Quas, & Cleveland, ; Davies & Noon, ; Golding, Fryman, Marsil, & Yozwiak, ; Leander, Christianson, Svedin, & Granhag, ; McAuliff & Kovera, ), relatively few studies have examined empathy's role in this judgment process (but see Bottoms, ). Moreover, no published study to date has specifically considered empathy's role in both adults' appraisal of child sexual abuse victims' emotional appearance and experience.…”