Cross-examination: The Testimony of Children With and Without Intellectual Disabilities

@article{Bettenay2014CrossexaminationTT,
  title={Cross-examination: The Testimony of Children With and Without Intellectual Disabilities},
  author={Caroline Bettenay and Anne M. Ridley and Lucy A. Henry and Laura Crane},
  journal={Applied Cognitive Psychology},
  year={2014},
  volume={28},
  pages={204-214}
}
The present study assessed how children with a range of cognitive abilities fared during a mock cross-examination. Ninety children (aged 4 to 11 years; 18 with intellectual disabilities [ID], 13 with borderline intellectual disabilities [BID], and 59 who were typically developing [TD]) witnessed a staged event, participated in an initial forensic interview (a few days later), and were cross-examined by a barrister-in-training (ten months later). During cross-examination, 98% of all children… 
View via Publisher
openaccess.city.ac.uk
15 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
1
Background Citations
3
Results Citations
2

15 Citations

Citation Type

Citation Type

Changed Responses Under Cross-examination: The Role of Anxiety and Individual Differences in Child Witnesses
Summary The present study explored whether levels of anxiety, and a range of individual differences measures (age, IQ and suggestibility), could predict performance during cross-examination…
Communication and cross-examination in court for children and adults with intellectual disabilities: A systematic review
Courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have identified children and adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) as vulnerable witnesses. The call from the English Court of Appeal is for…
Developmental Differences in Children’s Learning and Use of Forensic Ground Rules During an Interview About an Experienced Event
TLDR
Regression models showed that developmental level was the best predictor of children’s accuracy when they recounted their experience during the interview but that use of responses consistent with the rules, in conjunction with developmental level, predicted accurate resistance to suggestive questions.
Intermediaries and cross-examination resilience in children: The development of a novel experimental methodology
Experimental studies examining child ‘witnesses’ under cross-examination typically rely on researchers questioning children using a ‘barrister’s script’. In the current research, experienced…
Stability of autobiographical memory in young people with intellectual disabilities
Reported communication challenges for adult witnesses with intellectual disabilities giving evidence in court
Communication plays a key role in a witness's ability to give evidence and participate in the court process. Adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) can be negatively impacted by communication…
tability of autobiographical memory in young people with ntellectual disabilities
The present study aimed to analyze the stability of the memory of a stressful event (medical examination within a hospital setting) over time in young people (age range 12 to 21, Mage = 15.11 years…
Credibility assessment of testimonies provided by victims with intellectual disabilities
One of the main obstacles in the way of access to justice for the victims with intellectual disability comes from the stereotypes referred to their ability to produce a statement at police legal…
How do Lawyers Examine and Cross-Examine Children in Scotland?
Summary In the first study to systematically assess lawyers' questioning of children in Scotland, we examined 56 trial transcripts of 5- to 17-year-old children testifying as alleged victims of…
Evaluación de la credibilidad de la prueba testifical en víctimas con discapacidad intelectual
One of the main obstacles in the way of access to justice for the victims with intellectual disability comes from the stereotypes referred to their ability to produce a statement at police legal…
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 33 REFERENCES
The influences of delay and severity of intellectual disability on event memory in children.
TLDR
The findings indicate that children with intellectual disabilities can be valuable informants when forensically interviewed and can provide clear guidance about the ways in which they should be interviewed.
The Effect of Intellectual Disability on Children's Recall of an Event Across Different Question Types
TLDR
Overall, this study showed that children with either a mild or moderate intellectual disability can provide accurate and highly specific event-related information, however, their recall is less complete and less clear in response to free-narrative prompts and less accurate in reply to specific questions when compared to both the mainstream age-matched groups.
Eyewitness Memory, Suggestibility, and Repeated Recall Sessions in Children with Mild and Moderate Intellectual Disabilities
TLDR
Performance was similar, although children with ID gave more information in response to free recall instructions and changed their answers in the repeated interview more often, and standardized measures of verbal memory and suggestibility were modest to moderate predictors of eyewitness memory performance.
Perceived credibility and eyewitness testimony of children with intellectual disabilities.
TLDR
It appears that even in the absence of knowledge of whether a child does or does not have ID, this factor still affects perceptions of credibility among mock jurors.
Repetition of contaminating question types when children and youths with intellectual disabilities are interviewed.
TLDR
The effects of repeating questions in interviews investigating the possible sexual abuse of children and youths who had a variety of intellectual disabilities were examined, finding that repetitions of potentially contaminating questions frequently led the interviewees to contradict their earlier answers.
The Abilities of Children With Mental Retardation to Remember Personal Experiences: Implications for Testimony
TLDR
The abilities of children with mental retardation to remember the details of a personally experienced event were investigated and they accurately recalled the health check features, provided detail, and resisted misleading questions about features that did not occur.
The role of psychosocial factors in young children's responses to cross‐examination style questioning
The goal of the present study was to ascertain whether individual differences in self-esteem, self-confidence, assertiveness and number of siblings could predict young children's responses to…
Eyewitness testimony and perceived credibility of youth with mild intellectual disability.
TLDR
Perceptions of perceived credibility of witnesses with MID are provided and directions for future research in this area are suggested.
The effects of memory trace strength on eyewitness recall in children with and without intellectual disabilities.
Eyewitness memory and suggestibility in children with mental retardation.
TLDR
Children with mental retardation performed very well on many measures of eyewitness memory performance, reaching the level of the CA-comparable group for free recall, general questions, open-ended questions, and correctly leading questions, but were not more suggestible in response to closed misleading questions.
...
...