Children's Testimony Research Articles

The effect of drawing on children's experiences of investigations following alleged child abuse

The primary aim of the study was to evaluate investigative interviews from the perspectives of the children, comparing children who drew with children who did not. One hundred twenty-five children, alleged victims of sexual abuse, were asked about their investigative experience. The uniqueness of the study is that all of the interviews were conducted according to the NICHD Protocol and that children were randomly assigned into one of the two research conditions (drawing vs. non-drawing). The results clearly demonstrate the advantage that drawing has on the children's experience of the investigation, with children in the drawing group more often reporting feelings of hope and success. This study provides practical guidelines for practitioners by emphasizing the beneficial effects that drawing can have. The study stresses the importance of integrating into forensic investigations interventions that enhance children's testimonies and ensure that the investigation is an empowering experience that generates feelings of trust, self-worth, and justice.

Traumatic echoes of memories in child survivors' narratives of the Holocaust: the Polish experiences of Michał Głowiński and Henryk Grynberg

Drawing upon the important contribution brought by literary testimonies to humanitarian work delineated by Susan Rubin Suleiman (2002) and Leigh Gilmore (2011), this paper analyses two Polish Jewish authors' autobiographical narratives, Michał Głowiński's The Black Seasons (1999) and Henryk Grynberg's The Jewish War (1965) and Victory (1993), as instances of literary child-witnessing the Holocaust. The two authors' narratives represent two different cases of child survivors' testimonies given their situation during the Second World War: Głowiński being encamped in the Warsaw Ghetto, Grynberg living in hiding. The author argues that their narratives present the case of child survivors whose Holocaust experiences and aftermath memories in Communist Poland spring from their primarily scattered and painful memories foregrounding the importance of vulnerable lenses. In light of this, the main question the author addresses is: to what degree do these children's war memories take specific stances as a function of the age they were during the Holocaust and their location (either being encamped or living in hiding)? The main contention of the paper is that Second World War children's literary testimonies contribute to present-day scholarship by their complex understanding of the multi-faceted character of humans whose specific bulwarks are the simultaneous exposing and acknowledgement of individual occlusions, ambivalences, limitations or randomness.

Children's Testimony: A Handbook of Psychological Research and Forensic Practice, 2nd edn edited by Michael E.Lamb, David J.La Rooy, Lindsay C.Malloy and CarmitKatz (Eds) Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2011, 460 pp. £32.99. ISBN 978 0 470 68678 2

Child & Family Social WorkVolume 19, Issue 1 p. 119-120 Book Review Children's Testimony: A Handbook of Psychological Research and Forensic Practice, 2nd edn edited by Michael E. Lamb, David J. La Rooy, Lindsay C. Malloy and Carmit Katz (Eds) Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, 2011, 460 pp. £32.99. ISBN 978 0 470 68678 2 Carole Smith, Carole Smith Independent Child Protection Consultant England, UKSearch for more papers by this author Carole Smith, Carole Smith Independent Child Protection Consultant England, UKSearch for more papers by this author First published: 20 December 2013 https://doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12103Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume19, Issue1February 2014Pages 119-120 RelatedInformation

Children's testimony and the emotional victim effect

PurposeTwo experiments were conducted to examine the effects of (1) child victims’ emotional expression during testimony and (2) the camera perspective used to record the testimony, on judgements of credibility.MethodsLaw students (N = 155 in Experiment 1; N = 86 in Experiment 2) watched a child harassment complainant provide a statement in an emotional or neutral manner, presented using different camera perspectives: balanced focus (i.e., a shot portraying an equal focus on the child complainant and the interviewer) versus picture‐in‐picture (PiP; i.e., a shot portraying only the child with an inset window depicting both the child and the interviewer in the corner of the screen) in Experiment 1 and PiP versus child focus (i.e., a shot depicting only the child) in Experiment 2.ResultsAlthough no effect was found for camera perspective, the results provide support for an emotional victim effect (EVE); the child was perceived as more credible and truthful when communicating the statement in an emotional (vs. neutral) manner. Moreover, the results provide corroborating evidence for the assumption that the EVE rests on both cognitive (expectancy confirmation) and affective (compassion) mechanisms.ConclusionsThese findings extend previous research by showing that the EVE and its underlying mechanisms apply to judgements of child complainants in the context of non‐sexual crimes and appear to be robust against variations of camera perspectives. Legal implications are discussed.

Os netos que Salazar não teve: Guerra Colonial e memória de segunda geração

Como tem vindo a ser recorrentemente argumentado, a guerra, enquanto fenómeno bélico, social e político, atinge sempre pelo menos três gerações: a geração que é para ela chamada, a geração dos pais dos mobilizados e a geração dos filhos da guerra. A partir dos dados obtidos projeto “Os Fi­lhos da Guerra Colonial: pós-memória e representações”, financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia e realizado no Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra, entre 2007-2011, e em que os autores participaram, este artigo analisa a memória de segunda geração da Guerra Colonial portuguesa, através dos testemunhos recolhidos e da análise das representações artísticas e literárias a que este tipo de memória, ou melhor, pós-memória, tem vindo a dar origem.

Cross‐examination: The Testimony of Children With and Without Intellectual Disabilities

SummaryThe present study assessed how children with a range of cognitive abilities fared during a mock cross‐examination. Ninety children (aged 4 to 11 years; 18 with intellectual disabilities, 13 with borderline intellectual disabilities and 59 who were typically developing) witnessed a staged event, participated in an initial forensic interview (a few days later) and were cross‐examined by a barrister‐in‐training (10 months later). During cross‐examination, 98% of all children changed at least one response from their initial interview when challenged. However, group differences in performance (total number of changed responses, ‘resistance’ to challenges), controlling for age and memory for event details, were not significant or did not prove reliable at the level of individual group contrasts. Overall, little robust evidence for group differences in performance on cross‐examination could be identified, and memory for event details was the most reliable predictor of performance. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

‘Listen to the Child’: Law, Sex, and the Child Wife in Indian Historiography

AbstractThe scholarship on the history of family, marriage and sexuality in India has proliferated in the last two decades. The child – as the presumed target of health care, education or family law – haunts these histories, but rarely comes into focus. In contrast to the careful historicization of ‘woman’ as a subject of law, or the vehicle for various political ideologies, the child has, by and large, been treated as an a priori category of analysis, or an object without history. This essay considers how the figure of the child‐wife might be historicized by foregrounding age as a category of analysis, on the one hand, and points to the important theoretical and methodological insights that feminist historiography can offer to historians of childhood, on the other. In revisiting the ‘incidental’ histories of childhood produced by the feminist historiography on the child‐wife, this essay hints at some directions for the history of childhood by turning to Michel Foucault's provocative argument on the need to include the child as a key figure upon which modern sexuality was conceptualized, and by attending also to his muted suggestion that we “listen to the child.” It argues that the very issue of sexuality drives a wedge between what might be described as the discrete accounts of children and childhood in history. The two histories – of “real children living in the time and space of particular societies,” on the one hand, and of ideologies of childhood or the “the ideational and figurative force of their existence,” on the other – part ways as a result of a profound paradox in pursuing the subject of sexuality with regards to the child, whether in the legal courtroom or the colonial archive: any attempt to listen to the child's testimony on these matters runs against the grip of childhood as a normative category that signals incapacity, vulnerability and innocence.

'Stand by Me': The Effect of Emotional Support on Children's Testimonies

Many children who come into contact with the legal system following suspected maltreatment have difficulty disclosing the alleged abuse and providing rich and coherent testimonies. This study focuses on three interviews with alleged victims: two girls who were interviewed following reports of possible sexual abuse by their fathers and one boy who was interviewed following a report of possible sexual abuse by his mother. All the interviews were conducted by social workers trained in investigative interviewing techniques. The main aim of these case studies is to explore the effect of emotional, non-suggestive support on children's disclosure patterns and narratives during the forensic interview. These illustrative interviews emphasise the importance of employing emotional non-suggestive support in the forensic context, as this practice balances between the interests of the legal system and the best interests of the children involved. This balancing is a highly complicated task and represents social workers' contributions to the experiences of maltreated children in the legal system. The practical implications for social workers in the forensic context and other contexts are also discussed. Language: en

The effects of question format and co-witness peer discussion on the confidence accuracy of children's testimonies

Different types of social influence can affect eyewitness testimony. This study examined the effects of question format (free recall and prompts) and co-witness peer discussion on the confidence accuracy of memory reports of children aged 9–11 years. Pairs of children watched one of two perspectives of a film. Half of the pairs discussed the film; the rest discussed non-relevant topics. Children responding to prompts had a lower proportion of correct memory reports, were less confident, and showed poorer confidence accuracy compared with free recall. During free recall, the children showed near perfect confidence accuracy. No peer discussion effects were found; however, 33% of the children in the film discussion condition reported commission errors.

Children's reporting patterns after witnessing homicidal violence – the effect of repeated experience and repeated interviews

For both legal and clinical purposes, it is of importance to study children's memories and reports of stressful events. The present study investigated the reporting patterns of 83 children who had witnessed homicidal violence, which is considered to be a highly stressful experience. More specifically, we explored the possible effects of prior violence exposure and of repeated questioning on the amount of details reported. Results showed that the majority of children provided detailed reports about the homicidal violence they had witnessed, including details concerning what happened before, during, and after the violent act. The children provided detailed and vivid testimonies from their experiences, whether they witnessed the event for the first time or had prior experience of witnessing severe violence against the victim by the perpetrator. Children with no prior experience of repeated violence who underwent repeated interviews provided more details than those interviewed once. The present data indicate that children are competent witnesses when questioned in legal contexts after having been exposed to extremely stressful events. These findings have implications for research related to children's memories and reporting of traumatic experiences, as well as practical implications for future treatment and evaluation of children's testimonies.

Misconceptions about childhood sexual abuse and child witnesses: Implications for psychological experts in the courtroom

Recent changes to the law in New Zealand have led to a marked increase in experts being called to give evidence in cases of alleged child sexual abuse. Here we outline some of the common misconceptions that are held by expert witnesses in these cases and we review research on patterns of abuse disclosure and retraction, symptoms of abuse, external influences on children's reports, and experts' ability to distinguish true from false reports. We also consider what experts can say about memory that has relevance for these cases. We conclude that many long-held notions of child sexual abuse and children's testimony that make their way into our courtrooms are not supported by empirical research, raising questions about who is—and who is not—qualified to act as an expert witness.

Children's Memory for Their Mother's Murder: Accuracy, Suggestibility, and Resistance to Suggestion

From its inception, child eyewitness memory research has been guided by dramatic legal cases that turn on the testimony of children. Decades of scientific research reveal that, under many conditions, children can provide veracious accounts of traumatic experiences. Scientific studies also document factors that lead children to make false statements. In this paper we describe a legal case in which children testified about their mother's murder. We discuss factors that may have influenced the accuracy of the children's eyewitness memory. Children's suggestibility and resistance to suggestion are illustrated. Expert testimony, based on scientific research, can aid the trier of fact when children provide crucial evidence in criminal investigations and courtroom trials about tragic events.

Speciality of psychological processes in relation to children testimony

Witnesses are important and very frequent sources of evidence in criminal trial. The correct estimate the credibility of witneses is of great significance. Therefore the judge must obtain some psychological knowledge. He must know some essential things about psychological processes and psychological features which are in relation to witness testimony. The author brings into focus such processes as. Memory, thinking, speech and emphasizes the speciality of those psychological processes by children. The author also point to some psychological features of children witnesses as suggestibility.

Experts' beliefs about child testimony: Do they match the research or the recommendations?

The present study examines prosecutors', child investigators', and plaintiff aids' (i.e., important actors during alleged child sexual abuse [CSA] investigations) beliefs about children's testimonies. More specifically, the aim was to examine whether these experts agree (a) with praxis from, for example, the Supreme Court regarding the use of certain credibility criteria when evaluating the reliability of CSA reports; and/or (b) with findings from research on issues of child testimony. The participants (n = 206) were asked to rate how detailed, consistent, and spontaneous they believe children are in their CSA reports; the effects of exposure to repeated abuse; and to indicate their opinion on the optimal number of child interviews. Due to the low response rate, results can only be discussed in terms of possible indications, however, it is interesting to note that the experts had similar opinions on the issues investigated, opinions that were also rather in line with research findings on children's testimony. Although they receive support from the research, some of these opinions are not in line with recommendations made by the Supreme Court or the “Pre-trial Order.” More research is needed to further examine: (a) the reliability of the credibility criteria recommended by the Swedish Supreme Court; (b) how frequently the Swedish courts actually refer to these credibility criteria; and (c) different experts' (with different functions in the legal process) opinions on these criteria.

Play and Literacy: Six-year-old Children in Elementary Education

The investigation of play and literacy was based on monitoring data of five classes of six-year-old ch ild ren fro m 2006 to 2010, and an analysis of the teaching plan: performance records of children, interviews with parents; oral testimony of children, teacher records and reports from the toy library. The data indicates the relevance of the curriculu m with activity, med iation and use of imaginary p lay and games with the support of signs and artifacts. The research found that mediation is most appropriate when there are t wo teachers for imp lementing activ ities related to the pedagogy of games for literacy. The study addresses the use of play and games in literacy for child ren of six years in the elementary school i and the analysis of the concepts of activity, play and mediat ion, under the historical-cu ltural perspective. The changes in the education system that incorporated six-year-o ld ch ildren - who previously attended pre-school at that age - into elementary school justifies the need to prepare proposals for adapting the education of these children through play and the acquisition of new knowledge that is required for entering elementary school level . The experiment was conducted by means of the collaborative work of researchers and teachers of the School of Education at the University of Sao Paulo (FEUSP) and the Application Scholl (EA) . The intention to expand the elementary school period fro m eight to nine years had already been announced in the National Education Law of Gu idelines and Bases no. 9394/96. In 2001, the National Education Plan indicated the national education goal of bringing forward the compulsory, free education to the age of six. This public policy began to be planned in 2004, and was included in the texts published in subsequent years, and 2010 was established as the limit for its deployment throughout the country. The reasoning for the expansion of primary education to nine years is based on the urgency of building an inclusive, civic, supportive and quality school for all, and on greater time spent in school(1,2,3).

The effect of multipart prompts on children's testimonies in sexual abuse investigations

ObjectiveThe current study aimed to explore the frequency and effects of multipart prompts on the testimonies of children who were alleged victims of sexual abuse and were interviewed using the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Protocol. The effects of the multipart prompts were studied by considering the type of prompt given to the children and examining the richness of the children's testimonies (e.g., the number of words and the number of forensic details) and the ways the children contended with these prompts (e.g., which demand they answered, whether they signaled misunderstanding). Method71 Israeli children aged 4–9 years were interviewed after a complaint of single incident of sexual abuse by a perpetrator who was not a family member. All of the interviews that met the specified criteria and were conducted within a specified period were included in this study. Two raters identified simple versus multipart prompts and analyzed the children's responses. ResultsThe results clearly showed that multipart prompts were used in most interviews, regardless of the child's age. An average of 5.58 multipart prompts per interview was given. The effects of the multipart prompts were destructive and harmed the length and the richness of the children's testimonies. Children of all ages failed to signal their lack of understanding of multipart prompts, and 24% of their responses were unintelligible. When the children did produce a relevant and substantive answer, they primarily responded to the last demand in the multipart prompt and rarely provided an answer to both demands. ConclusionsThe study clearly indicates that even well-trained investigative interviewers present inappropriate multipart prompts to children. The findings contribute to the existing knowledge about the adverse effect that multipart prompts have on children's narratives, indicating that children of all ages provided poorer testimonies in response to multipart prompts. The systematic knowledge accumulated in both laboratory and field studies indicates that it is necessary to eliminate the use of multipart prompts by updating existing practical guidelines and training courses.

‘Does the jury really need to hear it all?’: the effect of evidence presentation practice on jury assessment of children's eyewitness testimony

This research provided an analysis of whether the presentation of a rapport stage to ‘jury’ members would influence their assessment of the quality and veracity of the subsequent testimony elicited. Three hundred and twenty-three participants aged between 18 and 78 years took part. Participants read a mock transcript of an investigative interview transcript and then completed a questionnaire with questions designed to test their assessment of the child, the interview, and the likely case progression. The transcript was manipulated so that participants were either presented with the rapport stage in full, or were merely told that the rapport stage had been conducted. There were further manipulations of child age (4 or 6 years) and child gender. There was a single main effect of rapport stage presentation (p<.001). Presentation of the rapport stage led to an enhanced participant assessment of child honesty and understanding, interviewer fairness and professionalism, and the likelihood that the alleged perpetrator would go to court and receive a custodial sentence. The results suggested that the practice of editing children's testimony for presentation in court should be conducted consistently; either all rapport stages should be presented in full (recommended), or all rapport stages should be omitted.

Effects of question type and camera perspective on evaluation of child testimony

Effects of question type and camera perspective on evaluation of child testimony

Trying to understand: promoting the psychosocial well-being of separated refugee children

This paper explores a holistic relationship-based approach to promoting the well-being of separated refugee children in the UK. Based on children's testimonies and case examples gathered over the past 10 years, it provides an overview of the practical and emotional support needs of separated children, including the asylum process, education, social services support, accommodation and health, from the point of arrival in the UK and through the transition to adulthood. Reflecting on practice, the paper explores strategies for supporting children suffering mental distress and considers the critical role that practitioners can play in the healing process by helping children to make sense of their experiences. Finally, the paper discusses the importance of both professional and personal relationships in enabling children to develop a sense of belonging and providing opportunities to share and create positive memories, which can help them move beyond stories of loss towards a more hopeful future.

"We Are Here": New Approaches to Jewish Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany (review)

Reviewed by: "We Are Here": New Approaches to Jewish Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany G. Daniel Cohen "We Are Here": New Approaches to Jewish Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany, edited by Avinoam J. Patt and Michael Berkowitz. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2010. 356 pp. $29.95. The history of Jewish displaced persons in postwar Germany—the so-called "Surviving Remnant" composed of concentration camp survivors, former partisans and Polish Jews who had narrowly escaped the Final Solution in exile in the USSR—has been the focus of recent books and dissertations. In this volume, Avinoam J. Patt and Michael Berkowitz present a rich selection of scholarship reflective of this historiographical trend. The transient experience of Jews in occupied Germany, they demonstrate, did not simply symbolize the last chapter of the Holocaust or, alternatively, the first chapter of Israeli history: it also enabled a complex cultural, political, religious, and educational drive towards regeneration, normalization, and commemoration. The essays under review seek to challenge prior assumptions about Jewish DPs: their supposed unified background and political cohesiveness, their alleged reluctance to make sense of the catastrophe that befell them, their purposeful avoidance of contacts with German society, and the prevalence of staunch ideological Zionism among Holocaust survivors. As stated by its editors, the volume's welcome goal is to produce "a more complete and nuanced interpretation of the DPs' experiences" (p. 4). To that end, Atina Grossmann's opening essay, written before the publication of her prize-winning book on this topic, shifts the focus from the wellknown [End Page 163] diplomatic and political history of DPs to their collective experiences. In particular, Grossmann documents the counterintuitive yet numerous interactions between Jews and Germans after the war, allowing for a dramatic reversal of power relations. These encounters with the "people of Amalek" revolved around food, black market, commercial dealings, or the administration of camps. The not uncommon case of German midwives, nurses, nannies, and domestic servants employed by Jewish refugees in and outside refugee camps added a gendered dimension to this symbolic (and non-violent) revenge. In keeping with the overarching theme of the volume, Grossmann shies away from easy characterizations: Jewish DPs were not merely the passive, traumatized, or black-marketeering refugees depicted in the reports of relief agencies or, alternatively, the heroic and resilient survivors admired by postwar Jewish American writers. The book indeed unveils the diversity of the Jewish DP society in transit and the wide array of activities embraced by its members. An important aspect of Jewish refugee life in Germany was the struggle for historical preservation. At a time when "Holocaust consciousness" was not yet on the horizon, the DP camps of Germany, Austria, and Italy served as crucial sites of documentation and memorialization. The "historical commissions" formed by activists in the DP camps and studied by Laura Jockusch produced sources and documentary material later used by YIVO in the United States and Yad Vashem in Israel. Children's testimonies were also collected. In his essay, Boaz Cohen shows how the voice of children was recorded and analyzed in Fun Letsten Hurbn, the first-ever Holocaust-research journal published in Munich in 1946. Alongside songs and musical performances (analyzed by Shiri Gilbert), the preservation of Yiddish literature was another facet of this remembrance effort. As Tamar Lewinski argues, a new Yiddish literary scene, adjusted to post-Holocaust realities, emerged out of the DP experience. Religion also functioned as a memorialization device. Margaret Myers Feinstein's study of religious practices among Jewish DPs demonstrates that rituals reaffirmed Jewish identity and, contrary to common belief, played a central role in the survivors' lives. Other essays in the volume tackle the issue of "DP agency." Did Jewish refugees act autonomously or did they remain tools and subjects of outside powers? The examination of Zionist sympathies among Holocaust survivors is a good case in point. According to Hagit Lavsky, who studied the political organization of Jewish DPs in Bergen-Belsen, the Zionist leanings of the Surviving Remnant were "neither a manipulative effort by external forces nor a constructed ideology" (p. 246). A spontaneous creation born in the context of displacement and mourning, DP Zionism was above all functional and therapeutic. For...