The knowledge and fears about court of child witnesses, schoolchildren and adults

Abstract

AbstractResearch in Scotland, Australia and North America has examined how children perceive the legal system, what they know about court and how the prospect of going to court makes them feel (Feber, 1985; Goodman and Reed, 1988; Flin et al., 1989). However, to date there are no comparable data for children in England. The present study focuses upon children who were scheduled to appear in court as witnesses, schoolchildren with no experience of litigation, and adults. Child witnesses and schoolchildren were found to have significantly more misunderstandings about terms and concepts in the English legal system than adults. Both groups of children perceived court as a stressful place. However, there were interesting differences in the types of fears that caused most concern, with the child witnesses' fears being mostly court‐focused and the fears of the schoolchildren being more wide‐ranging. The implications of these findings are discussed, including the role for individual assessment of knowledge and fears in the effective preparation of children for court and the need for the judiciary to be mindful of children and young people's limited knowledge of, and misunderstandings about the legal system.