"Over the past ten years, more research has been done involving children's testimony
than that of all the prior decades combined. Ceci & Bruck (93) have cited four reasons
for this :
- The opinion of psychology experts is increasingly being accepted by courts as
testimony,
- Social research is more commonly being applied to the issues of children's rights,
- More research into adult suggestibility in accordance with reason naturally leads to
more
research into child suggestibility,
- Children are more commonly being used as witnesses in cases where they are directly
involved
(i.e. sexual abuses cases), requiring the development of better ways for dealing with
them as
special cases.
Some psychologists deem children to be "Highly resistant to suggestion, as unlikely to
lie, and as reliable as adult witnesses about acts perpetrated on their bodies" (Ceci &
Bruck
1993). However, children are also described as "Having difficulty distinguishing reality
from
fantasy, as being susceptible to coaching by powerful authority figures, and therefore as
being
potentially less reliable than adults" (Ceci & Bruck 1993). The suggestibility of child
witnesses,
the effects of participation on children's reports, and the effects of postevent
information on a
prior memory representation must be taken into account when it comes to seeking answers
to
the reliability of their testimony, especially because sexual abuse and sexual assault
cases are a
big part of children's testimony and they are often the only witness.
Those psychologists who feel that children can be rated as "Highly resistant to
suggestion...." etc. seem to have a good argument, whereas those who take the opposite
view
also seem to have just as valid an argument. Which psychologists are right? Maybe both.
It
seems that without outside influences, social encounters, or other interference's,
children's
testimony has the potential to be quite valid. This is under ideal situations, however,
which
unfortunately rarely occur.
One of the major problems when assessing the validity of child witnesses is the
suggestibility of the child. Ceci & Bruck (1993) define suggestibility as "The degree to
which
children's encoding, storage, retrieval, and reporting of events can be influenced by a
range of
social and psychological factors." A child's perception of events may be manipulated by
many
factors with misleading questions being the most common way to assess a subjects
suggestibility
(Smith & Ellsworth, 87). A misleading question according to Smith et al, is one that
"provides
information that is inconsistent with the event witnessed, suggesting, for example, the
existence
of an object that was in fact not present." After being asked leading questions, a
subject is much
more likely than a person not asked leading questions to report the presented false
information
as correct.
This statement was validated by Kaufman and Richter's 1990 study. In this study a
number of young children (4 - 7 year olds) saw a short film featuring a circus
performance. A
few weeks after watching the film, the children were split into two groups. They were
then asked
(individually) a number of questions relating to the film. The first group were asked
leading
questions i.e. "What colour was the clowns hat" (where in fact the clown had not been
wearing a
hat), while the other group was simply asked "Was the clown wearing a hat". Kaufman and
Richter found that regardless of age, children often answered the leading questions and
accepted the fabricated information as being the truth.
This study clearly shows that children can be manipulated by clever questioning about a
witnessed event. However, this study did not involve the child interacting with the event
i.e. the
child did nit participate on any emotional level by simply watching a video.
Rudy & Goodman (1991) conducted an experiment involving the effects of participation
on children's testimony. The main purpose of Rudy & Goodman's work being to see whether
the
factors of age or participation influenced the recall of a child. Their experiment
involved thirty-six
children (eighteen 7-year olds and eighteen 4-year olds) going in pairs into a parked
trailer with a
male stranger (a confederate). One child played games with the confederate while the
other child
watched closely. Positive verbal and physical interaction took place between the
confederate and
the participant, and positive verbal interaction took place between the confederate and
the
bystander. The events were videotaped and lasted about ten minutes. The children then
returned
individually ten to twelve days later for a memory test and were asked to recall
everything he or
she could remember about the day in the trailer. Various questions were asked, which
included
specific and misleading questions. Rudy and Goodman concluded that although the
children's
participation level in an event did not have a pervasive effect on their memory, it did
serve to
increase the child's resistance to suggestion. Thus, children are more likely to resist
suggestion if
they are somehow involved with the event.
Robins et al (92) criticised this investigation on a number of levels and concluded that
it
could not be applied to support the use of child witnesses in a courtroom situation with
any
validity. Firstly, Robins noted that the majority of cases in which children were used as
witnesses
(i.e. sexual abuse and sexual assault cases), the events that the witnesses are asked to
recall
are often far from positive and indeed, where a child has been allegedly
assaulted/abused, the
witness may experience a number of emotional factors that alter the perception of the
event i.e.
guilt, fear, hatred, confusion etc, none of which were present in the Rudy and Goodman
study.
Although, of course, the introduction of these factors would have been a serious breach
of ethics.
Another criticism is that the time frame involved may not have been sufficiently long
enough to
emulate the period from event to testimony in a child witness case. Finally, the
situation under
which they were asked to recall the event was not nearly the same as being asked to
recall
details in a courtroom (Vickers & Fuller, 92).
There are many other types of suggestibility that can affect the reliability of a
child's
recall of events.
Experiments that involve the effects of postevent information on a prior memory
representation were performed by Rovee-Collier et al (1993) involving three-month-old
babies.
Rovee-Collier et al stated that ".....in eyewitness testimony research, postevent
information
impairs retention of the original event and increases the probability that interpolated
[new]
information will be identified as part of the original event." The infants used in the
experiments
were taught to kick to cause a crib mobile to move. They were then exposed to information
on a
novel mobile for a short amount of time. The information received by the babies after the
novel
event impaired their recognition of the original mobile when it immediately followed
their training.
Infants treated postevent data as part of the original training procedure. However, the
postevent
information did not impair their recognition of the event if it was delayed by one day.
Rovee-
Collier et al (93) proposed that "......postevent information displays conflicting
information
coactive with it in primary memory and creates a new, updated memory token of the event"
This seems to suggest that children are more susceptible to alter their perceptions of
an
event only if postevent information is supplied directly after the event. However, Summ &
Girston (94) suggested that "........with the brains inability to perceive every single
piece of
information of an event, new information will be immediately supplied through the act of
'assumption'" Summ & Girston defined 'assumption' as being the process by which
information
which has not been directly perceived (i.e. attenuated information (Triesmann, 64)), is
reconstructed using prior knowledge. This theory, therefore, leads us to believe that
there is a
source of unconscious postevent information after every even, even though assumption may
only cause a very small amount of new information.
The fact that Rovee-Collier et al received no indication of postevent information
clouding
the recall of the infants they used (if the information was presented a little time after
the event)
can be explained by their own justification of using infants in the first place. They
suggested that
"..... infants are choice subjects for investigation and study on memory involvement
because the
babies are not exposed to problems linked with social or task demands and other
circumstances.
It has often been observed that these problems interrupt customary research on eyewitness
testimony. Also, an infants' memory is not crowded with numerous other prior
associations". This
infers that the infants could not unconsciously supply their own postevent information as
they do
not have enough knowledge of their situation to make assumptions about new event.
Furthermore, children who give testimony in court are most likely to be older that the
ones that Rovee-Collier et al used in their study, and also it is likely that they would
have to
recall far more detailed information than the colour or arrangement of a mobile.
Supporters of using children to give testimony in court have claimed that the use of
anatomically correct dolls when interviewing children involved in sexual abuse cases
allow the
child to express themselves easier for a number of reasons. These are:
- The dolls simulate a critical event which could spark recall and help to overcome the
language
barrier,
- They help to overcome any shyness or embarrassment that the child might feel,
- They can be used in a projective manner, where a preoccupation with the genitalia may
indicate sexual abuse.
Ceci & Bruck (93) refute these arguments with the following reasons: Firstly, the dolls
themselves are suggestive. They might actually encourage a child to play in a manner
appearing
to indicate abuse because they provide a freedom from inhibition that might not be
normally
present or could indicate an exposure to sexuality, rather than actual abuse. Second,
there is
almost no normative data to support the use of dolls. Until fairly recently, no
significant research
had been done which compared patterns of play with the dolls between abused and
non-abused
children.
A further issue when deciding whether children should be allowed to testify in a
courtroom is that of factors not directly related to the child. For example how do jurors
react
when a child is asked to testify. i.e. Do jurors believe children? This question has been
investigated by researchers in complex detail. Luus, Wells & Turtle (1995) conducted
studies on
jurors who were misinformed of the interviewee's age, then asked to judge the information
garnered under cross examination. Surprisingly, it was discovered that transcripts of
interviews
with 8-year olds were judged to be as credible as those of adults. Similarly, when the
juror was
told the incorrect age, it did not affect the judgment. The jurors assessed the
credibility of the
testimony based on its content and not on the age of the interviewee. Interestingly,
Luus, Wells
and Turtle point out that this is actually a problem for jurors. Although they judged the
children to
be more accurate, they, in fact, were not. yet, the researchers are quick to point out
that the
research conditions and a real courtroom setting are very different and this should be
accounted
for. Overall, Luus, Wells and Turtle found that jurors may enter the courtroom with a
negative
bias against the child witness, but the actual testimony is judged more on the quality
than on the
child's age.
Some psychologist's, however, have refused to believe that children can give an
accurate testimony. By understanding what cognitive issues can affect memory, researchers
have been able to develop an interviewing technique which specifically seeks to maximise
the
completeness and accuracy of information reported by and interviewee. This type of
interview is
known as a 'cognitive interview' (Saywitz, Geiselman & Bornstein, 1992) showed that
cognitive
interviewing with children significantly increased the number if correct facts recalled.
Additionally, they discovered that practice cognitive interviews using an improvised
event could
improve recall. These findings have recently been supported by McCauly & Fisher (1995).
In
their research, the cognitive interview increased the amount of information accurately
recalled by
children. They also confirmed that new, accurate information was recalled ion subsequent
interviews. Uniquely, they found that using the cognitive interviewing technique as a
follow-up to
a standard interview increased the amount of accurate information gained over using the
standard interview a second time. This is especially applicable to field work where the
first
interview is often conducted hurriedly, without using cognitive procedures (McCauly &
Fisher,
1995).
In conclusion I have found that the underlying aspect of child testimony is
suggestibility.
Researchers today are concentrating most of their efforts in this area. It is easy to
suggest that
no children should be allowed to testify on account of the malleability of their
recollection.
However, children can play a vital role in the legal system, and indeed there are many
cases in
which a child is the only witness to a crime, but until the time that sufficient research
has been
done to achieve a system of questioning that will eliminate the suggestibility and social
aspects
of a child's testimony, all such testimonies should be treated with caution.
REFERENCES
Bernstein, D. A., Roy, E. J., Srull, T. K., Wickens, C. D. (1994) Psychology, 3rd
edition.
Houghton Mifflin Company, MA.
Ceci, S & Bruck, M. (1993). Suggestibility of the Child Witness: A Historical Review and
Synthesis, Psychological Bulletin. 113, 403 - 439
Lefrancois, G. R. (1992). Psychology, 2nd edition. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
California.
Luus, C. A. E., Wells, G. L., & Turtle, J. W. (1995). Child eyewitnesses: Seeing is
believing. Journal of Applied Psychology, 80, 317 - 326
Rovee-Collier, C. et al. (1993). Infants Eyewitness Testimony: Effects of Postevent
Information on a Prior Memory Representaion, Memory and Cognition, 21, 267 - 279
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