Award winning development psychologist Stephen J. Ceci, Ph.D., of Cornell University has conducted a laboratory research, studying some factors that can affect a child’s testimony. These conclude:

 Interviewer bias—When the interviewer (parent, therapist, investigator) believes he or she knows what happened and attempts to get the child to confirm it, ignoring anything the child says that does not conform with the interviewer’s bias and encouraging anything that does.

 Repeated Questions—Children, especially younger children are more likely to change their answers when asked the same yes or no question repeated during a single interview. Answers from children to yes or no questions repeated over several interviews are likely to become more firm an

Honesty 4.94 4.94 5.14 5.72

Many researchers are trying to come up with techniques to help children give accurate testimonies of their experiences. Such techniques as forensic interviews which have a proposed cognitive interview technique which gets greater detail out of a child without an increase in Stern, Clara, and William Stern. Recollection, Testimony, and Lying in Early Childhood. inaccuracies. There have been programs developed to help children be more complete in their reports, and to ask for clarification on questions not understood.

When a child is asked an open-ended question like ‘what happened’ a child generally says nothing. Being frightened causes this reaction even if something did occur.

 Stereotype induction—Children’s reports can be influenced by stereotypes suggested by the interviewer (or by others before the interview takes place). An interviewer telling a child that the [suspect] is a bad man who does bad things is an example of stereotype induction. Similarly, children can come to assume and report bad things about someone they had previously heard described in negative terms.

On March 2, 1984, in Hawaii, a 3yr old girl named Katie said to her mother that she had a burn on her leg. The girl’s mother thought it might have been a mosquito bite so she didn’t look at the little girl’s leg. That night the little girl had nightmares and was screaming continuously. The next day she told her mother that the burns were from a gun like device. The little girl said, she was abducted from school and was taken to a house, where a man took photos of her while she was naked. The little girl also said, another girl from school was there in the house also.

From the results it was seen the subjects held a rather negative stereotype of the child eyewitness. The subjects reported that they would give less weight to a testimony offered by a child than to that offered by an adult. Elderly witnesses were viewed just as negative as the child. This survey shows that age does have an effect on juror’s perceptions of credibility. (Ross et al)

Weight given to testimony 3.06 4.10 5.96 4.98

Some topics in this essay:
Park Jane, York University, Witness Characteristics, Children People, Ceci Suggestibility, David Ross, Repeated Questionsâ€Children, Peer Pressureâ€Children’s, Law School, Cuba United, little girl, child eyewitness, et al, ross et al, weight testimony, ross et, specific questions, child’s testimony, inaccurate testimony, sexually abused, little girl’s, obtain accurate complete, actually experienced imagined, reported weight testimony, child specific questions,