Child Victims, Child Witnesses: Understanding and Improving Testimony

With the significant surge in child sexual abuse cases reported and prosecuted in recent years, the involvement of children in legal proceedings has emerged as a matter of great public and professional debate. Confronting the major issues, questions, and dilemmas that surround this debate, the editors of CHILD VICTIMS, CHILD WITNESSES have assembled an international array of noted authorities who discuss the most current findings of child witness research.

Utilizing empirically based research that is clinically relevant, they address psychological and legal viewpoints on a range of critical issues including:

* Whether or not children have the cognitive capacity to recall and report past events accurately.

* If children are likely to conceal or fabricate information about past events, and if they are able to resist false suggestions.

* How socio-emotional and motivational factors influence the accuracy of children's reports, and how knowledge about children's memory can improve our understanding of their ability to testify in forensic settings.

* Ways to enhance the likelihood of obtaining accurate information from a child witness.

* If jurors can accurately evaluate children's testimony, or if they are biased in ways that might hinder fair adjudication of trials involving children as witnesses.

* What emotional impact the involvement in legal proceedings has on child witnesses.

* What special precautions and techniques can be used by courts to accommodate the needs of children--and the effect of such techniques on the accuracy of their testimony.

Presenting research-based answers to these questions in a format that is accessible to a wide readership, CHILD VICTIMS, CHILD WITNESSES is an invaluable reference for anyone concerned with children's testimony, from practitioners and researchers to mental health, social service, medical, and legal professionals. It also serves as a text for advanced students of psychology, social policy, and law.

Gail S. Goodman, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of California at Davis. Her research and writings on children's testimony are nationally and internationally known and have been cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, she has served as President of its Division of Child, Youth, and Family Services. Dr. Goodman has received numerous honors and awards including the Career Research Achievement Award of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.

Bette L. Bottoms, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has conducted research on issues of psychological and legal interest including the reliability of children's memory and techniques for improving children's testimony. She was the recipient of a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Human Services, to study jurors' perceptions of children's testimony.