Opinions of legal professionals: Comparing child and adult witnesses' memory report capabilities
(2014) In The European Journal of Psychology Applied To Legal Context 6(2). p.79-89- Abstract
- The opinions of legal professionals about child and adult witnesses might influence the likelihood that a case is allowed to proceed through the different stages of the legal process. With the aim of knowing the opinions of legal practitioners about child and adult witnesses, 84 legal professionals (Swedish police, prosecutors, and attorneys) were surveyed about their beliefs about child and adult eyewitness memory (and metamemory) abilities. The respondents answered 27 questions relating to nine forensically relevant belief areas in which they compared the memory ability of children (ages 7 to 11 years) and adults. The results showed no differences in assessment among members of different professions and a general trend suggesting that,... (More)
- The opinions of legal professionals about child and adult witnesses might influence the likelihood that a case is allowed to proceed through the different stages of the legal process. With the aim of knowing the opinions of legal practitioners about child and adult witnesses, 84 legal professionals (Swedish police, prosecutors, and attorneys) were surveyed about their beliefs about child and adult eyewitness memory (and metamemory) abilities. The respondents answered 27 questions relating to nine forensically relevant belief areas in which they compared the memory ability of children (ages 7 to 11 years) and adults. The results showed no differences in assessment among members of different professions and a general trend suggesting that, across the professions, children were believed to be poorer witnesses than adults regarding their memory abilities. Moreover, the professionals' within-group consensus was very low. These results are discussed in the context of eyewitness research findings and with respect to the implications for both legal and research practice. (C) 2014 Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid. Production by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4608921
- author
- Knutsson, Jens LU and Allwood, Carl Martin
- organization
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Eyewitnesses, Legal professionals, Opinions, Children, Adults, Event, memory, Metamemory
- in
- The European Journal of Psychology Applied To Legal Context
- volume
- 6
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 79 - 89
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000337990900005
- scopus:84904464690
- ISSN
- 1989-4007
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ejpal.2014.06.001
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Cognitive Psychology (012010190)
- id
- 72ab5e44-72f1-4899-a07c-8809788131a0 (old id 4608921)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 10:52:39
- date last changed
- 2022-03-04 23:41:26
@article{72ab5e44-72f1-4899-a07c-8809788131a0,
abstract = {{The opinions of legal professionals about child and adult witnesses might influence the likelihood that a case is allowed to proceed through the different stages of the legal process. With the aim of knowing the opinions of legal practitioners about child and adult witnesses, 84 legal professionals (Swedish police, prosecutors, and attorneys) were surveyed about their beliefs about child and adult eyewitness memory (and metamemory) abilities. The respondents answered 27 questions relating to nine forensically relevant belief areas in which they compared the memory ability of children (ages 7 to 11 years) and adults. The results showed no differences in assessment among members of different professions and a general trend suggesting that, across the professions, children were believed to be poorer witnesses than adults regarding their memory abilities. Moreover, the professionals' within-group consensus was very low. These results are discussed in the context of eyewitness research findings and with respect to the implications for both legal and research practice. (C) 2014 Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid. Production by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.}},
author = {{Knutsson, Jens and Allwood, Carl Martin}},
issn = {{1989-4007}},
keywords = {{Eyewitnesses; Legal professionals; Opinions; Children; Adults; Event; memory; Metamemory}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{79--89}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{The European Journal of Psychology Applied To Legal Context}},
title = {{Opinions of legal professionals: Comparing child and adult witnesses' memory report capabilities}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpal.2014.06.001}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.ejpal.2014.06.001}},
volume = {{6}},
year = {{2014}},
}