Brief research report: Age factors affecting the believability of repressed memories of child sexual assault.

Golding, Jonathan M.; Sanchez, Rebecca Polley; Sego, Sandra A.

doi:10.1023/a:1022329119988

Cited by 21 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…1 We also tested the influence of child victim age on case judgments. Older children are generally perceived as less credible than younger children in child sexual abuse cases (e.g., Bottoms, Davis, & Epstein, 2004;Golding, Sanchez, & Sego, 1999; but see Golding, Fryman, Marsil, & Yozwiak, 2003;McCauley & Parker, 2001; for a review, see Bottoms et al, 2007). Bottoms and Goodman (1994) theorized that, compared with older children and adults, young children are generally perceived to be low in competence (cognitive ability, resistance to suggestion), yet high in trustworthiness (honesty, sincerity, innocence; see also Goodman et al, 1984;Leippe & Romanczyk, 1987;, and that jurors attribute credibility to young child sexual abuse victims because they view these victims as honest and trustworthy, but also as sexually naive, lacking the knowledge and cognitive capacity to fabricate sexual encounters.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining Gender Differences in Jurors' Reactions to Child Sexual Assault Cases

Bottoms

Peter-Hagene

Stevenson

et al. 2014

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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In three experiments, we investigated the influence of juror, victim, and case factors on mock jurors' decisions in several types of child sexual assault cases (incest, day care, stranger abduction, and teacher-perpetrated abuse). We also validated and tested the ability of several scales measuring empathy for child victims, children's believability, and opposition to adult/child sex, to mediate the effect of jurors' gender on case judgments. Supporting a theoretical model derived from research on the perceived credibility of adult rape victims, women compared to men were more empathic toward child victims, more opposed to adult/child sex, more pro-women, and more inclined to believe children generally. In turn, women (versus men) made more pro-victim judgments in hypothetical abuse cases; that is, attitudes and empathy generally mediated this juror gender effect that is pervasive in this literature. The experiments also revealed that strength of case evidence is a powerful factor in determining judgments, and that teen victims (14 years old) are blamed more for sexual abuse than are younger children (5 years old), but that perceptions of 5 and 10 year olds are largely similar. Our last experiment illustrated that our findings of mediation generalize to a community member sample.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Explaining Gender Differences in Jurors' Reactions to Child Sexual Assault Cases

Bottoms

Peter-Hagene

Stevenson

et al. 2014

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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“…Previous research has revealed that juror gender affects perceptions and decisions in child sexual assault cases, just as it affects perceptions and decisions in adult rape cases (e.g., Borgida & Brekke, 1985). On average, women make more pro-victim case decisions than do men in terms of credibility, responsibility, or guilt judgments (Bottoms, 1993;Bottoms & Goodman, 1994;Duggan et al, 1989;Golding, Sanchez, & Sego, 1999;Golding, Sego, Sanchez, & Hasemann, 1995;Isquith, Levine, & Scheiner, 1993;Quas et al, 2002;Schmidt & Brigham, 1996;Swim, Borgida, & McCoy, 1993; for a review, see Schutte & Hosch, 1997). Differences in men's and women's attitudes toward children's believability and honesty, attitudes toward adult-child sexuality, and level of child victim empathy can partially explain these gender differences (Bottoms, 1993).…”

Section: Juror Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Victim and Defendant Race on Jurors' Decisions in Child Sexual Abuse Cases¹

Bottoms

Davis²,

Epstein

2004

J Applied Social Pyschol

100

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We examined the influence of victim and defendant race, victim age, juror gender, and juror prejudice on jurors' decisions in child sexual abuse cases. In Experiments 1 and 2, mock jurors judged Black and Hispanic child victims to be more responsible for their sexual abuse than White victims. In Experiment 2, jurors assigned more guilt to defendants in cases involving victims and perpetrators of the same race compared to different races. Experiment 3 illustrated that laypeople believe same‐race cases to be more plausible generally. Experiment 2 revealed that high‐prejudiced White mock jurors made no more racially biased judgments than low‐prejudiced mock jurors. Finally, women were generally more pro‐victim in their case judgments than were men, and older victims were disadvantaged compared to younger victims in terms of perceived credibility and responsibility, and their cases were less likely to draw convictions.

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“…Jurors were found to be more confident in their verdict when the abuse was repeated. This finding indicates that mock jurors may consider that "more" is worse and "more" is believable (see also Golding et al, 1999) because the victim would be less likely to have misunderstood the situation if the abuse happened more than once. Applying this reasoning to the present study, it may be that when participants were presented with multiple allegations of abuse, they believed that the defendant must be guilty of something, and so they convicted him on the allegation that seemed most plausible.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: the Effect of Truncated Testimony on Juror Decision‐making

Anderson

Gross

Sonne

et al. 2016

Behavioral Sci & The Law

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Many countries around the world have modified their legislation to allow child complainants of abuse to present their evidence-in-chief via pre-recorded videotape, or through closedcircuit-television (CCTV), rather than through live testimony, which has been shown to be stressful for children. With this modification, many countries also allow for childrens' videotaped evidence to be truncated for relevance or admissibility purposes. In the two experiments, we examined whether truncating testimony influenced how mock jurors rated the credibility of a 6-year-old child complainant when her testimony contained the primary core allegation only, or when the testimony was presented with either one or two additionalbut less plausible-allegations. We also examined how mock jurors rated the guilt or innocence of the defendant. Contrary to what we predicted, we found that participants believed the child's core allegation, regardless of whether or not it was presented with additional less plausible allegations. Moreover, jurors who read the transcripts containing multiple allegations of abuse were more likely to find the defendant guilty of the core allegation than were jurors who read the core allegation only. These findings suggest that the truncation of testimony may affect the outcome of a trial; however, more research is needed on the effects of truncated testimony on juror decision-making as we continue to try to make the criminal justice system as fair as possible for all of those involved.iii

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Brief research report: Age factors affecting the believability of repressed memories of child sexual assault.

Cited by 21 publications

References 18 publications

Explaining Gender Differences in Jurors' Reactions to Child Sexual Assault Cases

Explaining Gender Differences in Jurors' Reactions to Child Sexual Assault Cases

Effects of Victim and Defendant Race on Jurors' Decisions in Child Sexual Abuse Cases¹

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: the Effect of Truncated Testimony on Juror Decision‐making

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Brief research report: Age factors affecting the believability of repressed memories of child sexual assault.

Cited by 21 publications

References 18 publications

Explaining Gender Differences in Jurors' Reactions to Child Sexual Assault Cases

Explaining Gender Differences in Jurors' Reactions to Child Sexual Assault Cases

Effects of Victim and Defendant Race on Jurors' Decisions in Child Sexual Abuse Cases1

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire: the Effect of Truncated Testimony on Juror Decision‐making

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Effects of Victim and Defendant Race on Jurors' Decisions in Child Sexual Abuse Cases¹