PSYC 3020 Chapter 7: Week 7
2 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Ever since the salem witch trials the legal attitude towards child witnesses was skepticism. Early (cid:883)9(cid:882)(cid:882)"s research seemed to support this, suggested children were highly suggestible and could not separate fact from fantasy. When deciding if an child abuse case should go to court police consider whether corroborating evidence exists, and whether the suspect denies it: don"t consider questioning technique (even though we learned it plays a large role) Studies have found that children are capable of recalling forensically relevant details of an event: accuracy of these claims is highly dependent on how they are asked to report. Free narrative approach gives accuracy levels comparable to that of adults. But children often report very little information this way, often need to be prodded. More likely to respond the leading questions with erroneous responses. Older children are more resistant than younger children. Direct questions with a yes/no format are problematic for preschoolers.
