NCJ Number
111570
Journal
Michigan Law Review Volume: 85 Issue: 4 Dated: (February 1987) Pages: 809-834
Date Published
1987
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This discussion of the pressures experienced by children who testify in court regarding child abuse and sexual molestation focuses on how these pressures affect the child's testimony and proposes the use of videotaped testimony as a means of overcoming these pressures.
Abstract
Psychological research involving 17 girls and 20 boys between ages 7 and 9 in Michigan has shown differences in videotaped testimony and courtroom testimony. The children were accompanied by their parents to two evening sessions. In the first session, they saw videotapes, one of which involved the conversation of an ill-tempered man and a young girl who had just come home from school. In the second session, the children answered questions about the videotape in either a private setting or a courtroom setting. The findings showed that the quality and reliability of children's testimony is significantly enhanced through the use of the smaller, more intimate videotape environment in comparison to the courtroom setting. Thus, using videotape technology both reduces the emotional trauma to the child and maintains a fair trial for the defendant. Videotapes should therefore be used regularly to present children's testimony. Doing so does not infringe on the defendant's right to confrontation of witnesses, if it is properly handled in accordance with judicial decisions regarding the sixth amendment. 107 references.