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Evidence

2002

Children

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5. Scientific Support For Expert Testimony On Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation., Thomas D. Lyon May 2002

5. Scientific Support For Expert Testimony On Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation., Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

Roland Summit's article on child sexual abuse accommodation (CSAA)(Summit, 1983) describes sexually abused children's secrecy, helplessness, entrapment, delayed disclosure, and retraction. The paper is both admired and maligned. On the one hand, it has been hailed as one of the most influential papers ever written on child abuse (Oates & Donnelly, 1997). On the other hand, testimony on accommodation is often dismissed as dangerous pseudoscience" by both commentators and the courts (Summit, 1992).

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Child Witness Policy: Law Interfacing With Social Science, Louise E. Graham, Dorothy F. Marsil, Jean Montoya, David Ross Jan 2002

Child Witness Policy: Law Interfacing With Social Science, Louise E. Graham, Dorothy F. Marsil, Jean Montoya, David Ross

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

The number of children testifying in court has posed serious practical and legal problems for the judicial system. One problem confronting the courts is how to protect children from experiencing the psychological trauma resulting from a face-to-face confrontation with a defendant who may have physically harmed the child or threatened future harm to the child. Another concern is that this trauma may impair children's memory performance and their willingness to disclose the truth. In response to these concerns, child witness innovations proliferated throughout the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Among the innovations were: placing a screen between child …

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6. Applying Suggestibility Research To The Real World: The Case Of Repeated Questions., Thomas D. Lyon Dec 2001

6. Applying Suggestibility Research To The Real World: The Case Of Repeated Questions., Thomas D. Lyon

Thomas D. Lyon

One can discern two parallel trends in the law and the psychology of child witnesses. In the law, appellate courts are beginning to stem the once powerful movement to increase the acceptance of children’s testimony and the admissibility of children’s out-of-court statements. In psychology, experimental psychologists are amassing evidence of the potential unreliability of children’s memory reports. The trends intersect when courts assess the reliability of children’s statements in order to evaluate the competency of child witnesses, to decide whether to admit expert testimony about the suggestibility of children, and to decide whether to admit children’s hearsay.

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