Judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors affecting children's testimony about sexual abuse
(2007) In The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and applied 141(4). p.341-357- Abstract
- The authors examined Swedish judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors that may complicate or facilitate children's reports of sexual abuse. Participants (N = 562) rated potential complicating and facilitating factors and freely reported which criteria they considered important when assessing the reliability of child witnesses. The groups had similar opinions regarding which factors are complicating and facilitating. Furthermore, the groups tended to regard emotional factors as more complicating than cognitive factors. When freely reporting criteria that are important when assessing reliability, judges and police officers reported criteria pertaining mainly to the child, whereas lay judges reported mainly criteria... (More)
- The authors examined Swedish judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors that may complicate or facilitate children's reports of sexual abuse. Participants (N = 562) rated potential complicating and facilitating factors and freely reported which criteria they considered important when assessing the reliability of child witnesses. The groups had similar opinions regarding which factors are complicating and facilitating. Furthermore, the groups tended to regard emotional factors as more complicating than cognitive factors. When freely reporting criteria that are important when assessing reliability, judges and police officers reported criteria pertaining mainly to the child, whereas lay judges reported mainly criteria pertaining mainly to the police interview. Results indicate that participants believe that children have the capacity to remember and report about abuse but are hindered in doing so by emotional factors. Results also suggest that police officers may underestimate their own influence on the reliability of children's reports. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/687891
- author
- Leander, Lina ; Christianson, Sven A. ; Svedin, Carl Göran LU and Granhag, Par Anders
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- police officers, judges, beliefs, child witnesses, sexual abuse
- in
- The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and applied
- volume
- 141
- issue
- 4
- pages
- 341 - 357
- publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000248417600001
- scopus:34548219417
- ISSN
- 0022-3980
- DOI
- 10.3200/JRLP.141.4.341-358
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- fd37bca6-1d16-4e6c-b0ce-2183f0f9ab6a (old id 687891)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 16:51:51
- date last changed
- 2022-01-28 22:39:31
@article{fd37bca6-1d16-4e6c-b0ce-2183f0f9ab6a,
abstract = {{The authors examined Swedish judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors that may complicate or facilitate children's reports of sexual abuse. Participants (N = 562) rated potential complicating and facilitating factors and freely reported which criteria they considered important when assessing the reliability of child witnesses. The groups had similar opinions regarding which factors are complicating and facilitating. Furthermore, the groups tended to regard emotional factors as more complicating than cognitive factors. When freely reporting criteria that are important when assessing reliability, judges and police officers reported criteria pertaining mainly to the child, whereas lay judges reported mainly criteria pertaining mainly to the police interview. Results indicate that participants believe that children have the capacity to remember and report about abuse but are hindered in doing so by emotional factors. Results also suggest that police officers may underestimate their own influence on the reliability of children's reports.}},
author = {{Leander, Lina and Christianson, Sven A. and Svedin, Carl Göran and Granhag, Par Anders}},
issn = {{0022-3980}},
keywords = {{police officers; judges; beliefs; child witnesses; sexual abuse}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
pages = {{341--357}},
publisher = {{Taylor & Francis}},
series = {{The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and applied}},
title = {{Judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors affecting children's testimony about sexual abuse}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JRLP.141.4.341-358}},
doi = {{10.3200/JRLP.141.4.341-358}},
volume = {{141}},
year = {{2007}},
}