Memory and Testimony in the Child Witness

The assessment and improvement of eyewitness testimony of children is the topic of this volume. The first section examines factors that contribute to the reliability and accuracy of testimony, including the effects of extended delays, repeated questioning and exposure to leading questions.

The second part describes techniques that have been developed to improve the quality of children′s testimony, including interview techniques and the use of anatomically correct dolls, and explores their empirical and theoretical underpinnings. The final chapters focus on policy issues, including psychological research designed to guide legal reforms for accommodating child witnesses into the legal system.

This volume of carefully edited papers from psychological researchers in the United States and in Great Britain recounts the present state of this work. This is a useful over-view of the subject at today′s date. --AR Brownlie in Science & Justice Comprehensive and carefully edited, this insightful volume is a must read for anyone involved with children′s testimony. Leading scholars in the field examine and integrate research and practice on assessing and enhancing the quality of eyewitness testimony in children. The first section examines factors that contribute to the accuracy and reliability of such testimony, including the effects of extended delays, repeated questioning, and exposure to leading questions. The second section describes techniques that have been developed to improve the quality of children′s testimony, such as anatomical dolls and interviewing techniques, and discusses their empirical and theoretical underpinnings. The final chapter focuses on policy issues, including psychological research to guide legal reform in accommodating child witnesses. Interdisciplinary in nature, Memory and Testimony in the Child Witness should be in the professional toolkit of all psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and attorneys working with children′s testimony. It also serves as a text in any graduate level course focusing on eyewitness memory, children′s competence as witnesses, or psychology and the law.