The Interaction Between Children's Developmental Capabilities and the Courtroom Environment: The Impact on Testimonial Competency

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Michele Grossman, Department of Justice Canada, for her review of the manuscript, her helpful suggestions and direction.

Table of Contents

• Executive Summary
• 1. Introduction
  • 1.1 Children and the Courts
  • 1.2 The Reception of Child Witnesses in Court
  • 1.3 Post-Disclosure Stressors on Children
  • 1.4 Children's Qualitative Experiences on the Stand
  • 1.5 Understanding the Expectations of Child Witnesses on the Stand
  • 1.6 The Inquiry into the Oath: A Child's First Foray on the Stand
  • 1.7 Cross-Examination of the Child Witness
  • 1.8 Facing the Accused: The Impact on Child Witnesses
  • 1.9 Modifying the Criminal Justice System's Expectations of Child Witnesses
• 2. Children's cognitive abilities and their impact on Court Testimony
  • 2.1 Bridging the Gap in Knowledge for Child Witnesses
  • 2.2 Understanding the Meaning of the Truth and Making a Promise to Tell the Truth
  • 2.3 Children's Abilities to Make Inferences About Other's Intentions, and to Take Another's Perspective
  • 2.4 Dealing with Hypothetical Questions
  • 2.5 Using Scale Models to Explain a Situation to the Court
  • 2.6 Children's Tendency to Attribute Knowledge to Adults
  • 2.7 Children Don't Know That They Don't Know Things
  • 2.8 Children's Abilities to Estimate Duration, Frequency of Events and Dates
  • 2.9 Children's Concepts of Court
• 3. Language Development in Chidren
  • 3.1 Toddlers
  • 3.2 Preschool Aged Children
  • 3.3 Early Primary School Aged Children
  • 3.4 Late Primary School Aged Children
  • 3.5 General Language Skills
  • 3.6 Knowledge of Legal Terminology
• 4. Memory in Children
  • 4.1 The Processes of Memory
  • 4.2 The Use of Narrative Accounts in Memory
  • 4.3 Age as a Factor in Memory
  • 4.4 Prior Knowledge and Memory
  • 4.5 Impact of Anxiety on Memory
  • 4.6 Long-Term Memory
  • 4.7 The Effect of Time on Forgetting Behavior in Children
  • 4.8 Script Memory
  • 4.9 Source Monitoring
• 5. Suggestibility of Children's Memory
  • 5.1 Factors Affecting Children's Suggestibility
  • 5.2 Reducing the Potential for Suggestibility in Interviews
  • 5.3 Highlights on Children's Suggestibility
• 6. Developing a Model to Explain testimonial Competency
• 7. Recommandations for the System : How To Obtain Good Evidence from Children
• 8. Futures Directions
• References
• End Notes

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