In Experiment 0 we compared the in~uence of misleading suggestions on 3!\ 5!\ and 7!year! olds| reports of details of an instance of a repeated experience versus a unique experience[ For children who experienced the event repeatedly\ some components remained constant across instances "_xed# whereas others varied "variable#[ Relative to children who had experienced the event only once\ those who had experienced it repeatedly were less a}ected by suggestions regarding _xed details and more a}ected by suggestions regarding variable details[ In Experi! ment 1 a misinformation e}ect was observed in responses to questions about variable details but not in responses to questions about _xed details[

Perceptions of children's credibility were studied in two experiments wherein participants watched a videotape of a 4-to 5-or a 6-to 7-year old child report details of a play session that had been experienced once (single-event) or was the last in a series of four similar play sessions (repeat-event). The child's report was classified as high or low accurate. In Experiments 1 and 2, reports of repeat-event children were judged to be less believable on several measures. In Experiment 1, younger children were viewed as less credible than older children.In both experiments, neither undergraduates nor community members correctly discriminated between high-and low-accurate reports. Content analysis in Study 3 revealed the relationship between age and event frequency and children's credibility ratings was mediated by the internal consistency of children's reports. Recent research on children's reports of instances of repeated events has identified several challenges facing children who report repeated abuse. These data bring to light another potential difficulty for these children. Keywords Children . Law . Perceived credibility . Repeat eventsIn child sexual abuse (CSA) cases, there is rarely any corroborating evidence (Bruck, Ceci, & Hembrooke, 2001;Lamb, 1999;Pezdek et al., 2004) and so decisions about children's credibility made by child protection workers, police, prosecutors, and triers of fact are often determinative of the investigative and/or adjudicative outcome (Goodman, Batterman-Faunce, & Schaaf, 2002;McCarron, Ridgway, & Williams, 2004;Pezdek et al., 2004). Indeed, Lamb (1999) found that research concerning child witnesses is expanding to include communicative competence. And, Castelli, Goodman, and Ghetti (2005) reasoned that perceived credibility may be at least as important as actual accuracy. After all, it is the child's ability to communicate, combined with the ability of those working in the forensic system to understand that communication, which is often determinative of outcome. An important factor to consider when studying perceived credibility is the nature of the event that children may be asked to describe. Often, when children

This research examined whether a memorable and unexpected change (deviation details) presented during 1 instance of a repeated event facilitated children's memory for that instance and whether a repeated event facilitated children's memory for deviation details. In Experiments 1 and 2, 8-year-olds (N = 167) watched 1 or 4 live magic shows. Children were interviewed about the last or only show, which did or did not contain deviation details. Children reported more accurate information about the instance when deviation details were presented than when they were not, but repeated experience did not improve memory for deviation details. In Experiment 3, children (N = 145; 6- to 11-year-olds) participated in 4 magic shows and answered questions about each one. Deviation details were manipulated such that they caused a change in how the show was experienced (continuous) or had no such effect on the rest of the show (discrete). Younger, but not older, children's recall of all instances improved when a continuous deviation occurred compared to no deviation. Implications for how deviation details are represented in memory, as well as forensic applications of the findings, are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Recently, in many English-speaking countries, legal principles that had the effect of barring delayed criminal prosecutions have been abrogated. In these jurisdictions, criminal prosecutions of child sexual abuse that is alleged to have occurred in the distant past (historic child sexual abuse or HCSA) are a growing legal challenge. These cases raise myriad issues relevant to research and the development of public policy that would benefit from a considered exchange of ideas that is informed by a clear understanding of the phenomenon. Based on 2064 judicial decisions of Canadian criminal complaints of HCSA we describe the trial, the complainant, the accused, and the offence. In the context of these legal cases, we raise some of the germane issues as well as suggestions for future research and discussion that we believe are particularly current and pressing.

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