Mode of Children's Testimony and the Effect of Assumptions about Credibility
Due to changes in legislation, children's testimony in many jurisdictions can be presented differently to the way in which most adults' testimony is presented. The present research was conducted to investigate whether the various ways in which children's testimony is given affects how child victims in cases of child sexual assault are perceived in terms of reliability and how their testimony is evaluated. We examined the effect of giving testimony in court via closed circuit TV (CCTV) via a pre recorded testimony, and a combination of the two. The results indicate that the timing of the recording of the testimony, and the presence of the child in court, did affect the use of stereotypes in ratings of the case. Stereotypes about children's memories had an effect when an early recording of the child's testimony was lacking and when the child did not appear in court. Furthermore, the effect of these stereotypes was mediated by perceptions of the honesty and accuracy of the child in the case. This indicates that jurors do appear to use assumptions about children's memories and authenticity when making decisions in these kinds of cases.