12 Child in the Legal System Flashcards
What are the focus points for understanding a child in the legal system?
- Understanding the legal system
- Development of memory ability
- Social & emotional development
What is the background on victims/witnesses of crime for children in the legal system?
Special case of child abuse: when they are the sole witness
Statements are super important with a sole witness to prosecute especially when it is a 5-year-old child
What is the background on the type of questioning that can occur in a child in the legal system?
Pretrial (investigative interviews) - parent or caregiver starts asking questions
During court appearance: evidence-in-chief and cross-examination - everything you are saying is scrutinized so it is specifically difficult for young children to do
Why do children require special treatment in the legal system?
They are considered “vulnerable witnesses”
- A group of people with cognitive delays considered as vulnerable witnesses
- Ethnic backgrounds
What are some important factors kids should understand in the legal system?
Understanding court processes
-Issues for kids to understand court processes by lack of understanding
Understanding the concept of truth and lies
In understanding court processes, what fears do you think the child would feel?
- Speaking in front of others
- Making a mistake
- Punishment for mistakes
- Retaliation (increased from 7-13 yrs)
- Having to see the defendant
What is Cashmere & Bussey (1990): Comprehension study?
- Need to prove own innocence
- Likelihood of jail for witness
- Role of witness
- Need to tell the truth
- Cognitive and emotional responses are interlinked -> struggled with understanding questions
What type of support and preparation for court do children need?
- Helping children understand what to expect
- Interactive courtroom diagram
- Website of justice & attorney general
- Older children: cartoon version of the charter of victims rights
What type of screens and CCTV help children in understanding court processes and/or relieve a child’s fear?
- Evidence in chief by way of the pre-recorded interview: if one was completed by the police
- In children, if the police pre-record the interview with the child they can actually tender that video as evidence as to your evidence in chief
- That video becomes the statement the child has to give rather than physically doing it in trial
- Closed-circuit TV (CCTV): is not in the actual room of the court but in another room or for older children it is screening the defendant from the child
What is evidence in chief?
The main evidence is given in support of the case outlined by the main lawyer acting on behalf of the state (in a criminal case) or a private person (in a civil case) at the start of a trial. During their evidence in chief, all of the men had the same story to tell
In understanding truth and lies, a child’s evidence can be accepted without taking the oath if:
a. Told it was important to tell the truth
b. Declares will not lie
What constitutes a lie?
- Factuality
- Belief of speaker
- Intent of the speaker
What did Piaget research state about lies?
Naughtiness of lies judged by consequences, not the intention. Till 8-10 years
-Judged by the consequence not by the act of itself - if there is no negative consequences a lie is still bad cause you’re lying
What does more recent research state?
Pre-schoolers can judge intention if salient BUT evaluation of goodness/naughtiness of truth vs lies is still shaky
What did Bussey (1992) find out about lies in children in his research?
Pre-schoolers, 2nd and 5th graders
- Stories which varied factuality, punishment, whether listener believed
- E.g. J scribbled on her friend’s book, J’s friend asked if she had scribbled, J said “No I didn’t scribble” (OR “yes I did”) adult said ‘I don’t believe you”, J got in trouble
Pre-schoolers:
- Understood mismatch with reality BUT
- Thought punished lies worse than unpunished lies
- Unlikely to express pride over the truthfulness
What are two things we need to know in children understanding truth and lies?
- We need to know for certain that a child is telling the truth
- Testing a child’s understanding of a lie
According the NSW Oaths ACT (1990) on whether children can be encouraged to tell the truth, a child’s evidence can be accepted without taking the oath if:
(i) Child is told important to tell the truth
(ii) Child declares they will not lie
According to Lyon et al (2008) study, will this work?
Child development - children (4-7 years old) coached by an adult to:
(a) deny playing with dolls house or (b) falsely report playing
Compared instructions:
- Oath: “Promise to tell the truth. Will you tell me any lies?” effective
- Reassurance: “if something.. Bad happened its ok. You won’t get into trouble.. We can try to fix it” ineffective
- No instructions
Findings:
- Reassurance ineffective
- “Oath” helpful for free recall but less helpful when highly suggestible questions
What is the truth and lie ceremony?
From the equality before the law bench book (NSW)
Competence to give unsworn evidence is presumed if the child is told:
- It is important to tell the truth - child states that they will do so
- Someone might as questions you don’t know the answer to, if so, it’s ok to say I don’t know
- You shouldn’t feel pressured to agree with suggestions that aren’t true (say if you don’t agree with something: say that’s not right)
*This has an important effect on what happens in trials
What develops in understanding legal (& general) language?
- Vocabulary
- Grammar
- Use of language in social contexts
*Both receptive and expressive language
What are gradual acquisition across primary school years of concepts of and vocabulary for:
- Number
- Distance
- Weight
- Time
- Height
How does the vocabulary for relevant concepts affect understanding in children?
(body parts, relational terms, month/days, receptive language)
- Body parts: families often have idiosyncratic terms for “private” body parts
- Relational terms: before, after, yesterday, tomorrow, earlier, later
- Words for days of the week, months, seasons
- Receptive language: can children monitor their understanding of adults questions?
- Comprehension monitoring
What does comprehension monitoring involve?
Identifying the problem
Selecting an appropriate strategy
Social-emotional skills
What is Saywitz (1995) understanding of language?
Even if they realise they don’t understand, young children may be reluctant to say “I don’t know”/”I don’t understand”
Saywitz trained 6 and 8 years olds to:
(1) Monitor comprehension
(2) Signal lack of comprehension
Q: Will the children tell us if they don’t understand the question?
- Three groups: (1) No intervention (2) “Tell me if you don’t understand” (3) Comprehension monitoring strategy training
- Instructed children:
o Indicated lack of comprehension more and asked for rephrasing more
