In-court versus out-of-court testimonies: Children's experiences and adults' assessments

✍ Scribed by Sara Landström; Pär Anders Granhag

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 117 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/acp.1606

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The study examined the effects of different presentation modes on child witnesses' experiences and adults' perception and assessments of the same witnesses. Child witnesses (N = 108) were interviewed about an event that they had either experienced or imagined. Adult mock jurors (N = 240) watched the children's testimonies live, via two‐way closed‐circuit television (CCTV), or via a pre‐recorded video. The results showed that the live observers perceived the children in more positive terms than did the two‐way CCTV observers, who in turn perceived the children in more positive terms than did the video observers. Briefly, it seems as the more proximal the presentation mode, the more positive the observers' perception. Somewhat in contrast to these results, a significantly smaller proportion of the children who testified on video stated that they were nervous, compared to the children who testified live or via two‐way CCTV. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.