TY - JOUR
T1 - Challenging the credibility of alleged victims of child sexual abuse in Scottish courts
AU - Szojka, Zsófia A.
AU - Andrews, Samantha J.
AU - Lamb, Michael E.
AU - Roosevelt, Stacia
AU - Lyon, Thomas D.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2017/5
Y1 - 2017/5
N2 - This study examined the effects of credibility-challenging questions (n = 2,729) on 62 5- to 17-year-olds' testimony in child sexual abuse cases in Scotland by categorizing the type, source, and content of the credibility-challenging questions defense lawyers asked and assessing how children responded. Credibilitychallenging questions comprised 14.9% of all questions asked during cross-examination. Of defense lawyers' credibility-challenging questions, 77.8% focused generally on children's honesty, whereas the remainder referred to specific inconsistencies in the children's testimony. Children resisted credibility challenges 54% of the time, significantly more often than they provided compliant responses (26.8%). The tendency to resist was significantly lower for questions focused on specific rather than general inconsistencies, and peripheral rather than central content. Overall, children resisted credibility challenges more often when the aim and content of the question could be understood easily. As this was a field study, the accuracy of children's responses could not be assessed. The findings suggest that credibility-challenging questions that place unrealistic demands on children's memory capacities (e.g., questions focused on peripheral content or highly specific details) occur frequently, and that juries should be made aware of the disproportionate effects of such questioning on the consistency of children's testimony.
AB - This study examined the effects of credibility-challenging questions (n = 2,729) on 62 5- to 17-year-olds' testimony in child sexual abuse cases in Scotland by categorizing the type, source, and content of the credibility-challenging questions defense lawyers asked and assessing how children responded. Credibilitychallenging questions comprised 14.9% of all questions asked during cross-examination. Of defense lawyers' credibility-challenging questions, 77.8% focused generally on children's honesty, whereas the remainder referred to specific inconsistencies in the children's testimony. Children resisted credibility challenges 54% of the time, significantly more often than they provided compliant responses (26.8%). The tendency to resist was significantly lower for questions focused on specific rather than general inconsistencies, and peripheral rather than central content. Overall, children resisted credibility challenges more often when the aim and content of the question could be understood easily. As this was a field study, the accuracy of children's responses could not be assessed. The findings suggest that credibility-challenging questions that place unrealistic demands on children's memory capacities (e.g., questions focused on peripheral content or highly specific details) occur frequently, and that juries should be made aware of the disproportionate effects of such questioning on the consistency of children's testimony.
KW - Child sexual abuse
KW - Children's responses
KW - Credibility-challenging questions
KW - Defense cross-examination
KW - Scotland
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U2 - 10.1037/law0000117
DO - 10.1037/law0000117
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85009965938
SN - 1076-8971
VL - 23
SP - 200
EP - 210
JO - Psychology, Public Policy, and Law
JF - Psychology, Public Policy, and Law
IS - 2
ER -