Children's testimony: A scientific framework for evaluating the reliability of children's statements

Maggie Bruck, Stephen J. Ceci

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the reliability of children's autobiographical memory. We do this by first outlining the basic elements of suggestive interviews and elucidating some basic scientific principles to be used as guides when evaluating reliability or taint in interviews with children who claim to have been participants or observers of an event. Then we apply this scientific foundation to evaluating the reliability of a child's statements of sexual abuse that arose during a divorce/custody case.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationRutter's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Subtitle of host publicationSixth Edition
PublisherJohn Wiley and Sons Ltd
Pages250-260
Number of pages11
ISBN (Electronic)9781118381953
ISBN (Print)9781118381960
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 13 2015

Keywords

  • Child witnesses
  • False memory
  • Interviewing
  • Legal evidence
  • Memory development
  • Memory distortion
  • Suggestibility

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Medicine

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