Opinions of legal professionals: Comparing child and adult witnesses’ memory report capabilities

Abstract

A B S T R A C TThe opinions of legal professionals about child and adult witnesses might influence the likelihood that a case is allowed to proceed through the different stages of the legal process. With the aim of knowing the opinions of legal practitioners about child and adult witnesses, 84 legal professionals (Swedish police, prosecutors, and attorneys) were surveyed about their beliefs about child and adult eyewitness memory (and metamemory) abilities. The respondents answered 27 questions relating to nine forensically relevant belief areas in which they compared the memory ability of children (ages 7 to 11 years) and adults. The results showed no differences in assessment among members of different professions and a general trend suggesting that, across the professions, children were believed to be poorer witnesses than adults regarding their memory abilities. Moreover, the professionals' within-group consensus was very low. These results are discussed in the context of eyewitness research findings and with respect to the implications for both legal and research practice.Opiniones de los profesionales del derecho: comparación de la capacidad para el informe de memoria de testigos niños y adultos R E S U M E N Las opiniones de los profesionales del derecho sobre los testimonios de niños y adultos podrían influir en la probabilidad de que un caso prospere en las diferentes etapas del procedimiento legal. Con el objetivo de conocer las opiniones de los actores legales y judiciales sobre los testimonios de niños y adultos, se encuestó a 84 abogados, fiscales y policías suecos sobre sus creencias acerca de las habilidades de memoria (y metamemoria) de niños y adultos testigos presenciales. Los participantes respondieron a 27 preguntas relativas a 9 áreas de creencias relevantes para la práctica forense en las que informaban sobre las habilidades de memoria de los niños (de 7 a 11 años) y adultos. Los resultados no mostraron diferencias inter-profesiones pero sí una tendencia general que sugiere, en la muestra global, que se percibía a los niños con peores habilidades de memoria a la hora de prestar testimonio que a los adultos. No obstante, el grado de consenso intra-grupo resultó muy bajo. Se discuten las implicaciones de los resultados para la investigación sobre el testimonio presencial y la práctica legal y judicial.

Swedish Legal Professionals' Opinions on Child and Adult Witness Memory‐reporting Capabilities: Using the Method of Indirect Comparisons

“…Moreover, children were believed to be poorer at estimating time and to give less complete and coherent testimonies, again consistent with previous research. However, in contrast with previous reports, the participants in Knutsson and Allwood's () study did not sufficiently pay attention to the effect of the type of memory‐reporting question on witness confidence accuracy; they did not sufficiently heed the effect of the difference between free‐recall questions and other types of memory questions on confidence accuracy. Furthermore, Knutsson and Allwood () did not uncover any differences in opinions among the various professions, with very low within‐group consensus for each profession.…”

“…In a recent and related survey of the beliefs of police personnel, prosecutors, and attorneys when making direct comparisons of child and adult witnesses (Knutsson & Allwood, ), we found that the mean ratings on 17 of 27 questions were in the direction of children having more difficulties in providing reliable memory‐based reports than adults, although our results also showed that professionals were generally aware that children are as able as adults to give reliable free recalls of experienced events. These findings reflected a fairly skeptical stance toward child witnesses, consistent with previous survey‐based research on child witness‐related beliefs held by professionals and lay judges (Benton et al, ; Granhag et al, ; Knutsson & Allwood, ; Leander et al, ; Melinder et al, ; Morison & Greene, ).…”

“…In a study by Knutsson and Allwood (), 84 respondents (police personnel, prosecutors, and attorneys), different from those in the present study, answered a questionnaire directly comparing the memory‐reporting capabilities of children and adults. Responses were consistent with research showing that child and adult witnesses are equally able to give reliable free recalls but that children are more vulnerable to suggestions and often have a higher forgetting rate.…”

“…Although there is a large body of previous surveys of legal professionals, questions on child witness performance are seldom posed. To our knowledge, only three studies (reviewed in the following) focused on legal professionals' opinions on children as eyewitnesses (Knutsson & Allwood, ; Leander, Christianson, Svedin, & Granhag, ; Melinder, Goodman, Eilertsen, & Magnussen, ). In these studies, the questions either asked for a direct comparison between child and adults witnesses or were of a generic kind specifically about child witnesses.…”

“…Most previous studies on legal professionals' opinions of child witness' event memory reporting have asked very few questions about children (Benton, Ross, Bradshaw, Thomas, & Bradshaw, ; Granhag, Strömwall, & Hartwig, ; Kassin et al, ; Magnussen et al, ) or asked about ‘witnesses’ in general without any reference to age (Brigham & Wolfskeil, ; Kebbell & Milne, ; Magnussen, Melinder, Stridbeck, & Raja, ; Magnussen et al, ; Wise & Safer, ; Wise et al, ). We next review the three studies that we know have implemented a main focus on the opinions of legal professionals on the issue of children as eyewitnesses (Knutsson & Allwood, ; Leander et al, ; Melinder et al, ).…”