Mugged by the facts? Children's ability to distinguish their own and witnesses' perspectives on televised crime events

Abstract

This study investigates 5- to 9-year-old children's ability to differentiate between their own and a television witness's perspective on televised crime events. Previous research on legal concept development, on perspective-taking, and on children's processing of implicit information in television all lead to the prediction that distinguishing between one's own and an independent witness's knowledge should be challenging to younger children and should improve during the age range tested. Children viewed programs in which their own and the witness's opportunities to observe the perpetrator of a crime were either congruent or discrepant. Children were asked to choose whom the witness would identify as the culprit. In the congruent condition, responses were generally accurate; in the discrepant condition, the younger children were prone to conflate their own perspective with that of the witness. The findings are discussed in terms of the interaction of developing social cognitive skills, television viewing and legal understanding.