Determinants of the Child Victim’s Perceived Credibility

Goodman, Gail S.; Bottoms, Bette L.; Herscovici, Barbara B.; Shaver, Phillip

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-8832-6_1

Cited by 63 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…As might be expected, mock jurors are more confident in a child's cognitive abilities as the child gets older (Leippe, Brigham, Cousins, & Romanczyk, 1989;Ross, Jurden, Lindsay, & Keeney, 2003) and rate older children as less suggestible than younger children (Buck & Warren, 2009;Nikonova & Ogloff, 2005). Surprisingly, some studies have found that credibility decreases with age (Goodman, Bottoms, Herscovivi, & Shaver, 1989) and many have attributed these findings to the possibility that children might be perceived as being less honest as they get older (Nightingale, 1993). With regard to gender of the child, some studies have reported that male child victims are viewed as less credible than females (Haegerich & Bottoms, 2000), while other studies have found no differences (Bottoms & Goodman, 1994;Crowley, O'Callaghan, & Ball, 1994;Isquith, Levine, & Scheiner, 1992.…”

mentioning

confidence: 84%

When children are witnesses: The effects of context, age and gender on adults' perceptions of cognitive ability and honesty

Nuñez

Kehn

Wright

2010

Appl. Cognit. Psychol.

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The goals of the present study were to examine how context impacts perceptions of children, and the extent to which context interacts with a child's age and gender to alter adults perceptions of children. Specifically, we examine how perceptions of honesty (i.e. knowing the difference between truth and lie, being trusted by adults, being reliable, and honest) and cognitive ability (i.e. having a good memory for events and being able to attend and concentrate) are the same or different in the context of a child sexual abuse case (CSA) than when no context is provided. First, the results revealed few significant findings with regard to either juror or child gender. The analyses did reveal several context effects, with attention, trusted, reliable and honesty each producing higher ratings, and therefore better perceived memories, in the CSA condition than the no context condition. Also, ratings of all the dependent variables varied by age and 4 out of the 5 higher order interactions involved child age. Importantly, we found that ratings of honesty and cognitive abilities were not linear with age but, typically, ratings increased with age but then leveled out or started decreasing after 8 years-of-age.

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mentioning

confidence: 84%

When children are witnesses: The effects of context, age and gender on adults' perceptions of cognitive ability and honesty

Nuñez

Kehn

Wright

2010

Appl. Cognit. Psychol.

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“…Witness attributes, such as age, interact with a juror's beliefs and stereotypes, influencing the verdict. Contradictory perspectives have been espoused regarding children's testimony and jurors' beliefs and stereotypes (Goodman, Bottoms, Herscovici, & Shaver, 1989). On one hand, jurors may believe that children make poor eyewitnesses because they are thought to be highly suggestible and have poor recall abilities.…”

Section: Age Of Eyewitnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of eyewitness identification decisions and age of witness on jurors’ verdicts and perceptions of reliability

Pozzulo

Lemieux

Wells

et al. 2006

Psychology, Crime & Law

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Juror verdicts and the perceived reliability of crime details were examined as a function of eyewitness identification decisions (positive identification vs non-identification vs foil identification) and age of the eyewitness (adult vs child). Participants were asked to read a partial transcript of a mock trial and then render verdicts and reliability ratings of various crime details about which the witness testified. Positive identifications led to more guilty verdicts than non-identifications but not more than foil identifications. Positive identifications were perceived as more reliable than non-identifications and foil identifications, whereas non-identifications were perceived as reliable as foil identifications. The reliability of other crime details did not differ as a function of identification decision or age of witness. Overall, the adult witness was rated as more credible than the child witness; however an appreciable difference was not observed in the outcomes measured.

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“…The question of credibility addresses the issue of what leads to belief independently of whether the story is actually true. Factors that may affect adults' perceptions of child witness credibility include a child's perceived general competence, suggestibility, trust-worthiness, nonverbal demeanor, age, gender, and other personal characteristics (e.g., Bottoms & Goodman, 1994;Goodman, Bottoms, Herscovici, & Shaver, 1989;Haugaard & Reppucci, 1992;Ross, Dunning, Toglia, & Ceci, 1990). Given that jurors' evaluations of the accuracy of children's testimony may be subject to error, it is important to identify the factors that influence adults' judgments of children's truthfulness (Goodman et al, 1989;Wells, Turtle, & Luus, 1989).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adults' judgments of children's coached reports.

Talwar

Lee

Bala

et al. 2006

Law and Human Behavior

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This study investigated adults' judgments of the honesty of children's coached true and fabricated mock testimony. Adults saw video clips of children testifying in a mock court about a true or fabricated event in their lives. They were asked to make an assessment of the truthfulness of the testimony, and respond to questions about their perception of children's credibility. Half of the adults saw children testifying after a competence examination, and the other half saw children testifying without a competence examination. Overall, girls were rated as more competent than boys, and their testimony was more likely to be believed. Younger children were more likely to be rated as incompetent than older children. A factor analysis of adults' responses revealed six factors which significantly predicted adults' overall assessment of children's credibility, and their evaluations of children's competence to testify. Adults' detection accuracy was at chance, with the majority of children rated as truthful. Viewing the competency examination and cross-examination did not improve the adults' detection accuracy. However, seeing the cross-examination made adults' less likely to believe children's testimony. The implications of these results for the judicial system are discussed.

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Determinants of the Child Victim’s Perceived Credibility

Cited by 63 publications

References 27 publications

When children are witnesses: The effects of context, age and gender on adults' perceptions of cognitive ability and honesty

When children are witnesses: The effects of context, age and gender on adults' perceptions of cognitive ability and honesty

The influence of eyewitness identification decisions and age of witness on jurors’ verdicts and perceptions of reliability

Adults' judgments of children's coached reports.

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