16. Child Witnesses And Imagination: Lying, Hypothetical Reasoning, And Referential Ambiguity., Thomas D. Lyon
Jul 2013
16. Child Witnesses And Imagination: Lying, Hypothetical Reasoning, And Referential Ambiguity., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Children's resistance to unpleasant hypotheticals undermines their apparent understanding of the truth and lies. Better understanding of children's developmental limitations, improved questioning, and objections to developmentally insensitive questions could improve children's performance.
15. Assessing The Competency Of Child Witnesses: Best Practice Informed By Psychology And Law., Thomas D. Lyon
Jun 2011
15. Assessing The Competency Of Child Witnesses: Best Practice Informed By Psychology And Law., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Truth-lie competency, which concerns the child's understanding of the difference between truth and lies and the importance of telling the truth, can be demonstrated by asking the child whether simple statements are the truth, and by asking the child to promise to tell the truth. Tests of children's truth-lie competency do not predict honesty, but eliciting a child's promise to tell the truth does increase honesty.
14. Investigative Interviewing Of The Child., Thomas D. Lyon
Feb 2010
14. Investigative Interviewing Of The Child., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Children, if questioned in a supportive manner, are capable of providing enormous amounts of productive information in response to open-ended questions. The irony is that many direct and suggestive methods once thought necessary to overcome abused children's reluctance to disclose abuse have been found counterproductive in two ways: they minimize the number of details in true allegations at the same time that they increase the risk of false allegations.
13. Interviewing Children., Thomas D. Lyon
Nov 2009
13. Interviewing Children., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
There is sufficient empirical evidence and consensus to begin to build guidelines, including the interview structure, setting, interviewer demeanor, children's reluctance and suggestibility, rapport development, narrative practice, introducing the topic of abuse, avoiding concepts that confuse children, instructions to children, phrasing of questions, evidence-based strategies for eliciting details, and multiple interviews.
12. Disclosure Of Child Sexual Abuse., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern
Oct 2009
12. Disclosure Of Child Sexual Abuse., Thomas D. Lyon, Elizabeth C. Ahern
Thomas D. Lyon
The research supports the proposition that CSA victims often delay disclosure or fail altogether to disclose abuse and that delays and nondisclosure are most common among children abused by a familiar person, especially a family member living in the child's household. The implications of the research are that inconsistencies and recantations in children's reports may be due to reluctance rather than a false allegation.
11. Abuse Disclosure: What Adults Can Tell., Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2008
11. Abuse Disclosure: What Adults Can Tell., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
This book chapter reviews 14 retrospective surveys inquiring into respondent’s child abuse experiences and whether they ever disclosed abuse as children. I discuss the advantages of retrospective surveys (representativeness, reduced likelihood of false allegations, reduced suspicion bias). However, I also emphasize the likelihood of survey reluctance, and explain how this biases upwards estimates of abuse victims’ prior disclosure. If respondents who previously disclosed abuse are more likely to acknowledge abuse to a surveyor than respondents who never previously disclosed abuse, respondents who acknowledge abuse are disproportionately likely to be those who have previously disclosed. Difficulties notwithstanding, the research supports the …
10. False Denials: Overcoming Methodological Biases In Abuse Disclosure Research., Thomas D. Lyon
Jan 2007
10. False Denials: Overcoming Methodological Biases In Abuse Disclosure Research., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
When Roland Summit published his paper on child sexual abuse accommodation (Summit, 1983), the notion that sexually abused children disclose abuse only reluctantly and ambivalently was thought "so basic that it contributed nothing new to the literature" (Summit, 1992, p. 155). Summit's paper was neither original research nor a systematic review of research, and he emphasized that his conclusions were largely based on his work as a clinical consultant and "endorsements" from professionals, victims, and their families (Summit, 1983, p. 180).
9. Domestic Violence And Child Protection: Confronting The Dilemmas In Moving From Family Court To Dependency Court., Thomas D. Lyon, Mindy B. Mechanic
Dec 2005
9. Domestic Violence And Child Protection: Confronting The Dilemmas In Moving From Family Court To Dependency Court., Thomas D. Lyon, Mindy B. Mechanic
Thomas D. Lyon
The overlap between domestic violence and child maltreatment has received an enormous amount of attention from domestic violence advocates, child advocates, policymakers, and researchers. The goals of empowering victims of domestic violence, usually women, and protecting children from abuse and neglect, usually by men, are theoretically compatible and mutually reinforcing. However, advocacy for battered mothers and protection for maltreated children have developed along different paths, leading to conflict and distrust (Edleson, 1999).
8. Speaking With Children: Advice From Investigative Interviewers., Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2004
8. Speaking With Children: Advice From Investigative Interviewers., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Imagine that you are treating a child suffering from the effects of neglect. You do not suspect sexual abuse, and do not directly question the child about abuse, but she makes what sounds like anabuse disclosure. Or, you hear from another source (a sibling, for example, or a caretaker) that thechild has made statements hinting that she was abused. What should you do? If you decide to question the child, you may inadvertently suggest information. Even if you are careful to avoid
leading questions, you may later be attacked for contaminating the child=s story, given the inherent polarization …
7. Expert Testimony On The Suggestibility Of Children: Does It Fit?, Thomas D. Lyon
Oct 2002
7. Expert Testimony On The Suggestibility Of Children: Does It Fit?, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
State v. Sloan (1995 [Mo. Ct. App.]) was a criminal case of child sexual abuse. AD., the 6-year-old alleged victim, was dropped off on Friday by her mother at her grandmother's house, where the child's aunt Evelyn and the defendant also resided. Two days later, on Sunday, the child's aunt Anita phoned the child's mother and told her that something was wrong. AD. then told her mother that the defendant had sexually assaulted her the day before. The mother called the child abuse hot line. On Thursday, 5 days after the alleged abuse, a social worker and a police detective …
6. Child Witnesses And The Oath., Thomas D. Lyon
Aug 2002
6. Child Witnesses And The Oath., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
Despite the liberalization of competency requirements for child witnesses in many countries (Spencer & Flin, 1993; Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, 1999, s. 53 [Engl.]), a substantial number of courts in the United States and other countries require that every witness take the oath or make some sort of affirmation that s/he will tell the truth (Federal Rules of Evidence 602,2001;Shrimpton, Oates, & Hayes, 1996).In order to guarantee that an oath or affirmation is understood by child witnesses, courts routinely inquire into children's understanding of the difference between the truth and lies and their obligation to tell the truth …
4. Interviewing Children In And Out Of Court: Current Research And Practice Implications., Karen J. Saywitz, Gail S. Goodman, Thomas D. Lyon
Jan 2002
4. Interviewing Children In And Out Of Court: Current Research And Practice Implications., Karen J. Saywitz, Gail S. Goodman, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
What do we know about children's abilities to provide eyewitness testimony? Until recently, scientific data wee surprisingly sparse. However, beginning in the mid-1980s, the study of child victims/witnesses grew at an astounding rate; now it is a worldwide endeavor. When Melton (1981) published one of the first modern reviews of psychological research on children's testimony, only one contemporary empirical study directly dressing children's eyewitness memory was cited. Today, entire books and journal issues are devoted to research on this topic (e.g., Ceci & Bruck, 1995; Dent & Flin, 1992; Goodman, 1984; Goodman & Bottoms, 1993; Perry & Wrightsman, 1991; Poole …
3. Coming To Grips With Children’S Suggestibility., Karen J. Saywitz, Thomas D. Lyon
Dec 2001
3. Coming To Grips With Children’S Suggestibility., Karen J. Saywitz, Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
When children are asked to describe what they have seen, heard, or experienced,they bring their limitations along with their capabilities to the task. Adults who rely on children's answers must come to grips with theimperfections and inadequacies, as well as the merits and utility, of children'sreports. Some research findings appear to condemn children's re...ports, others champion their competencies. One way to understand thisinconsistency is to align the studies along a continuum.
2. Are Battered Women Bad Mothers? Rethinking The Termination Of Abused Women’S Parental Rights For Failure To Protect., Thomas D. Lyon
Jul 1999
2. Are Battered Women Bad Mothers? Rethinking The Termination Of Abused Women’S Parental Rights For Failure To Protect., Thomas D. Lyon
Thomas D. Lyon
It is often stated that intervention on behalf of abused and neglected children is intended to protect the child rather than punish the parent. This stance justifies a no-fault approach to child protection: If a child is being harmed and removal from the parents' custody is the only means to alleviate the harm, removal is justified. If reunification fails, regardless of whether the parent will not or cannot change, the termination of parental rights is justified. It matters not whether the parents acted to harm the child or failed to act to prevent harm. Nor does it matter whether the …
1. Where Researchers Fear To Tread: Interpretive Differences Among Testifying Experts In Child Sexual Abuse Cases., Thomas D. Lyon, Jonathan J. Koehler
Jul 1998
1. Where Researchers Fear To Tread: Interpretive Differences Among Testifying Experts In Child Sexual Abuse Cases., Thomas D. Lyon, Jonathan J. Koehler
Thomas D. Lyon
Debates regarding the admissibility of expert testimony in child sexual abuse cases are often characterized as between clinicians and researchers. Clinicians base their judgment on personal experience and anecdotes, whereas researchers base their judgment on scientific findings. Clinicians are willing to testify that a particular child has been sexually abused, whereas researchers cautiously avoid rendering a judgment about any particular case. Clinicians believe that they can interpret children's statements and behaviors to validate abuse, whereas researchers warn that children's statements and behaviors may be shaped by adults, including clinicians. Clinicians are happy to testify (typically for the prosecution), comfortably adopting …
