Violence Exposure Among Women in the Sex Industry and Their Children in El Alto, Bolivia: A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study.

We conducted a comparative cross-sectional study to compare the prevalence of exposure to workplace violence and intimate partner violence (IPV) in 125 female sex workers (FSWs) and 125 age-matched control women working in other professions (non-FSWs) and their children in El Alto, Bolivia. Violence exposure was assessed using the Demographic Health Survey Domestic Violence Module. To determine associations between work type and violence exposure, we conducted multivariate logistic regression. One-third of working mothers experienced sexual IPV, regardless of their profession. FSWs experienced higher rates of severe physical IPV and workplace violence. Children of FSWs were approximately three times more likely to be exposed to violence in the workplace. In Bolivia, strategies to reduce exposure to violence within the home and in FSW workplaces are paramount to minimizing negative impacts on women and their children. These findings have implications for policies to improve education, living wages, and social interventions to prevent and mitigate violence against women and children.

[Child witness to domestic violence: how to get out of the violence ?] / Enfant témoin de violences conjugales : comment se déprendre de la violence ?

If the child witness does not suffer physical violence in his flesh, growing up in a context of conjugal violence is not without damage for his subjective construction. The violence frightens them, makes them anxious and insecure, and confronts them with the question of death, which cannot be represented or symbolized. Trauma and a possible identification with the aggressor are born from this. Violence affects the toddler in his investments and in the links he weaves with his parents. Parents, whose protective maternal function is weakened and whose paternal function is failing.

Individual Differences in Children's Suggestibility: An Updated Review.

The present review is intended as an overview of our current understanding of how children's individual characteristics, in terms of demographic, cognitive, and psycho-social variables, may influence their susceptibility to suggestion. The goals are to revisit conceptual models of the mechanisms of suggestibility, to provide an updated practical guide for practitioners, and to make recommendations for future research. Results suggest that children with intellectual impairment and those with nascent language skills may be particularly vulnerable to suggestion. Further, memory for separate events, theory of mind, executive function, temperament, and social competence may not be related to suggestibility, whereas additional work is needed to clarify the potential contributions of knowledge, stress, mental health, parental elaborative style, and adverse experiences/maltreatment to children's suggestibility.

Differential effects of direct and cross examination on mock jurors' perceptions and memory in cases of child sexual abuse.

When children testify in cases of child sexual abuse (CSA), they often provide minimal responses to attorneys' questions. Thus, how attorneys ask questions may be particularly influential in shaping jurors' perceptions and memory for case details. This study examined mock jurors' perceptions after reading an excerpt of a CSA trial transcript. Participants' memory of the excerpt was tested after a two-day delay. We examined how reading a direct or cross-examination excerpt that included either high or low temporal structure impacted participants' perceptions, verdict decisions and memory reports. We found that participants who read a direct examination excerpt rated the child witness as more credible, were more likely to convict the defendant and had more accurate memory reports than those who read a cross-examination excerpt, regardless of temporal structure. Suggestions for improving jurors' comprehension and recall of child statements presented as evidence in CSA cases are discussed.

Adults' Perceptions of Children's Referentially Ambiguous Responses.

The present study examined adults' (N = 295) interpretations of child witnesses' referentially ambiguous "yes" and "no" responses to "Do You Know/Remember (DYK/R) if/whether" questions (e.g., "Do you know if it was blue?"). Participants were presented with transcripts from child sexual abuse cases modified based on question format (DYK/R vs. Direct) and child response type (Yes, No, I don't know) in a between subjects design. We assessed whether adults recognized that children's ambiguous responses were unclear, and if not, how they were interpreting children's responses compared to the control (Direct) conditions. More specifically, we assessed whether adults interpreted children's responses as answering the explicit (e.g., "No, I don't remember") or implicit (e.g., "No, it wasn't blue") question. Participants virtually never recognized ambiguous responses as unclear, and their interpretations were influenced by the attorney's question and child's response type. In sum, these results suggest that DYK/R questions often lead to misinterpretation, resulting in miscommunication.

The impact of child welfare legislation on domestic violence-related homicide rates.

State-specific statutes providing legal consequences for perpetrating domestic violence in the presence of a child have been enacted across the United States between 1996 and 2012. This paper examines the impact of this child welfare legislation, using a difference-in-differences approach. We find a significant drop in domestic violence-related homicide rates, when considering a wide range of victim-offender relationships. However, this result does not hold for marital homicides, suggesting that for this subpopulation, the risk of reprisal and consequent reduction in reporting may be counterbalancing the hypothesized deterrent impacts of the legislation.

Children as alibi witnesses: the effect of age and confidence on mock-juror decision making.

This study investigated the influence of child alibi witness age and confidence upon mock juror decision making. Participants (N = 145) read a mock murder trial transcript containing the evidence of a defendant and a corroborating child alibi witness. Six versions of the trial transcript were created manipulating the alibi witness's age (8, 12, 16 years of age) and the confidence they displayed (high, low) while giving evidence. Despite a tendency towards returning not-guilty verdicts, no associations between alibi witness age, confidence and verdicts were found. However, confident alibi witnesses were perceived as more honest, accurate and reliable than unconfident alibi witnesses. The findings do not support the two-factor model of witness credibility, but do suggest that the alibi scepticism commonly found towards adult alibi witnesses may not extend as strongly towards children corroborating the defendant's alibi. More research is required before policy recommendations can be made.

Using implicit encouragement to increase narrative productivity in children: Preliminary evidence and legal implications.

Statements made by children in a range of legal settings can irrevocably impact their family structure, relationships, and living environment. Because these statements can fundamentally alter children's futures, efforts have been made to identify methods to enhance children's reports by increasing comprehensiveness, completeness, and accuracy. Interviewer support has broadly been considered a method of interest, but variations in what constitutes "support" have highlighted the need for greater specificity in documenting how different facets of supportive behaviors relate to children's reporting tendencies. In this review, we describe work focused on the effects of interviewer support, on children's memory completeness and accuracy. We then describe to a subset of interviewer behaviors that encourage elaboration in dyadic interactions: back-channeling and vocatives. We present preliminary evidence suggesting that these utterances, referred to as implicit encouragement, can increase the amount of detail provided without compromising accuracy. Implications for custody evaluations are discussed.

Prosecutors' Perceptions on Questioning Children about Repeated Abuse.

The purpose of this study is to elicit guidance from prosecutors across Australia on questioning children about repeated events. Two focus groups were conducted. The first sought broad feedback concerning questioning children about repeated events. The second focused more specifically on eliciting feedback about techniques for aiding children in describing specific instances of repeated events. The techniques used are derived from a combination of empirical research and best practice interview guidelines. Data from both focus groups were compiled because themes were highly similar. Thematic analysis of the focus group discussions revealed three broad themes in prosecutors' perceptions about questioning children about repeated abuse: a) permitting children to provide a full generic account before describing individual episodes of abuse, b) using the information obtained during the generic account to create episode labels, and c) probing incidences of abuse chronologically. These themes are discussed within the context of the child development and mnemonic literature, and implications for interviewing protocols are drawn.

Young children's ability to use two-dimensional and three-dimensional symbols to show placements of body touches and hidden objects.

In two experiments, we investigated 3- to 5-year-old children's ability to use dolls and human figure drawings as symbols to map body touches. In Experiment 1, stickers were placed on different locations of children's bodies, and the children were asked to indicate the locations of the stickers using three different symbols: a doll, a human figure drawing, and the adult researcher. Performance on the tasks increased with age, but many 5-year-olds did not attain perfect performance. Surprisingly, younger children made more errors on the two-dimensional (2D) human figure drawing task compared with the three-dimensional (3D) doll and adult tasks. In Experiment 2, we compared children's ability to use 3D and 2D symbols to indicate body touch as well as to guide their search for a hidden object. We replicated the findings of Experiment 1 for the body touch task; for younger children, 3D symbols were easier to use than 2D symbols. However, the reverse pattern was found for the object locations task, with children showing superior performance using 2D drawings over 3D models. Although children showed developmental improvements in using dolls and drawings to show where they were touched, less than two thirds of the 5-year-olds performed perfectly on the touch tasks. Both developmental and forensic implications of these results are discussed.

Children's Physical Proximity to Interparental Conflict: Resilient Process and Retrospective Perceptions of Parent-Child Relationships.

This retrospective study sought to determine (a) whether physical proximity to interparental conflict in childhood moderates the link between frequency of exposure to interparental conflict and subsequent levels of resilience in adulthood and (b) whether retrospective perceptions of parent-child relations and insecurity mediate the link between interparental conflict and resilient development. A total of 963 French students aged 18-25 years were assessed. Our study showed that the children's physical proximity to interparental conflict is a major long-term risk factor for their subsequent development and their retrospective perceptions of parent-child relations.

Attorneys' Questions About Time in Criminal Cases of Alleged Child Sexual Abuse.

In cases of alleged child sexual abuse, information about the timing of events is often needed. However, published developmental laboratory research has demonstrated that children struggle to provide accurate and reliable testimony about time and there is currently a lack of field research examining how attorneys actually question child witnesses about time in court. The current study analyzed 130 trial transcripts from cases of alleged child sexual abuse containing a child witness between the ages of 5-17 years old to determine the frequency, style, and content of attorneys' questions and child responses about time. We found that attorneys primarily ask closed-ended temporal location questions (i.e., asking when an event took place using a temporal construct such as day, month, and year) to child witnesses. Additionally, children, of all ages, rarely said "I don't know" or expressed uncertainty in response to temporal questions. These findings are concerning as researchers find that children tend to struggle with temporally locating past events.

Lawyers rapport building practices with child witnesses.

BACKGROUND: Existing literature on rapport building in forensic interviews with children has primarily focused on police or social workers (Collins et al., 2002); overlooking the lawyer-child relationship. OBJECTIVE: The present study was a novel exploration of the rapport building process between lawyers and child witnesses during the interview stage of a criminal proceeding. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: A total of 67 Canadian lawyers (Mage = 41.69, SD = 11.19; 51 % female-identifying) with experience questioning child witnesses (i.e., under 18 years old) were surveyed on their rapport building with child witnesses. METHODS: A self-report survey was used to assess how lawyers conceptualize and engage in rapport building with child witnesses. RESULTS: Lawyers were found to perceive rapport building as an important element when working with child witnesses; however, the lawyers' self-reported rapport building techniques overlooked several important elements of rapport building identified in forensic interviewing literature. Overall, the role of the lawyer (i.e., prosecution or defence), but rarely gender, influenced their self-reported rapport building methods. Prosecution lawyers tended to report behaviors that were more aligned with creating an interpersonal connection during the rapport building phase with the child, such as creating an environment where the child feels safe and comfortable. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide insight into how lawyers conceptualize and engage in rapport building with child witnesses. Overall, the lawyers perceived rapport building as an important element with child witnesses, but only some of the techniques mentioned are considered best practices to build rapport with children.

When a Battered Victim Kills Their Abuser: The Impact of Child and Expert Testimony on Mock Jurors' Decision-Making.

The present study investigated the effects of child and expert witness testimony on mock jurors' decision-making and perceptions of a case in which a female defendant claimed self-defense as the reason for killing her husband during a domestic dispute. A 3 (expert witness: Battered Woman Syndrome [BWS] vs. Social Agency [SA] vs. No Expert) × 3 (child witness: Age 5 vs. Age 8 vs. no child) between-subject design was used to examine the effects of two different forms of expert testimony and their interaction with the presence of a child witness. Jury-eligible participants (N = 370) were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and a Psychology Undergraduate Student Pool. The mock jurors who were exposed to the BWS expert perceived the defendant as more guilty when an 8-year-old testified compared to when no child testified at all. Furthermore, when the jurors were exposed to the BWS expert, they imposed a harsher sentence on the defendant when an 8-year-old child testified compared to a 5-year-old child or no child testifying. Although the jurors perceived the defendant in the BWS condition as more fearful compared to no expert and the SA condition, this knowledge did not seem to translate into a lighter verdict or sentencing decision. This study aims to provide guidelines for future researchers and legal professionals considering the issue of expert testimony and child witnesses in intimate partner homicides.

SUPPORTING CHILDREN IN U.S. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS: Descriptive and Attitudinal Data From a National Survey of Victim/Witness Assistants.

We conducted a national survey of 786 victim/witness assistants (VWAs) to provide descriptive and attitudinal information about support person use in U.S. legal proceedings involving children. VWAs (N = 414) from 46 states returned completed surveys (response rate = 53%). Prosecutor-based VWAs or parents/guardians most frequently served as support persons. One support person was almost always or often used with child victims and/or witnesses of all ages. Support persons were extremely common in cases involving child sexual abuse, physical abuse, neglect, and adult domestic violence. Overall, support persons provided more informational than emotional support. The most common informational support was to provide referrals to community resources, conduct courtroom visit/orientation, and disseminate relevant procedural information. The most common emotional support was to accompany the child to trial. Support persons rarely or never questioned children directly during investigative interviews or in court. Respondents believed support persons decrease children's stress and increase accuracy and credibility; however, this effect varied as a function of who provided support, child age, case type, and type of emotional or informational support. Respondents believed that support person presence at trial probably does not prejudice jurors against defendants. These survey data provide a benchmark for legal professionals and a foundation for future social scientific research examining the effects of support person use on children.

How Children Report True and Fabricated Stressful and Non-Stressful Events.

As children can be victims or witnesses to crimes and may be required to testify about their experiences in court, the ability to differentiate between children's true and fabricated accounts of victimization is an important issue. This study used automated linguistic analysis software to detect linguistic patterns in order to differentiate between children's true and false stressful bullying reports and reports of non-stressful events. Results revealed that children displayed different linguistic patterns when reporting true and false stressful and non-stressful stories, with non-stressful stories being more accurately discriminated based on linguistic patterns. Results suggest that it is difficult to discriminate accurately and consistently between children's true and false stories of victimization.

The Impact of the Consistency of Child Witness and Peer Reports on Credibility.

Adults' perceptions of children's disclosures have important implications for the response to that disclosure. Children who experience adult transgressions, such as maltreatment, often choose to disclose this experience to a peer. Thus, peer disclosure recipients may transmit this disclosure to an adult or provide support for the child's own disclosure. Despite this, the influence of peer disclosure on a child witness's credibility, as well as on the perceptions of peer disclosure recipients, is unknown. The present study examined how child witnesses' and peer disclosure recipients' credibility is impacted when the peer either confirms or contradicts the witness's disclosure (or concealment) of an adult transgression. Participants listened to a child witness and peer being interviewed by an adult in one of four disclosure patterns (consistent disclose, consistent conceal, witness disclose/peer conceal, or witness conceal/peer disclose). Participants rated both the witness and the peer on dimensions of credibility (honesty and cognitive competence). Results revealed that both the witness and peer were more credible when their reports were consistent with one another. When inconsistent, the witness/peer who disclosed was considered more credible than the one who concealed. The findings indicate the potential importance of peers in the disclosure process as they may support the witness's report and even be a credible discloser when the witness is reluctant to disclose.

Rating the Honesty of White and Black Children via Implicit and Explicit Measures: Implications for Child Victims in the Criminal Justice System.

The present study explored implicit and explicit honesty perceptions of White and Black children and whether these perceptions predicted legal decisions in a child abuse case. Participants consisted of 186 younger and 189 older adults from the online Prolific participant pool. Implicit racial bias was measured via a modified Implicit Association Test and explicit perceptions through self-reports. Participants read a simulated legal case where either a Black or White child alleged physical abuse against their sports coach, and they rated the honesty of the child's testimony and rendered a verdict. Participants were implicitly biased to associate honesty with White children over Black children, and this bias was stronger among older adults. In the legal vignette, for participants who read about a Black child victim, greater implicit racial bias predicted less trust in the child's testimony and a lower likelihood of convicting the coach of abusing the child. In contrast to their implicit bias, participants self-reported Black children as being more honest than White children, suggesting a divergence in racial attitudes across implicit and explicit measures. Implications for child abuse victims are discussed.

Lawyers' experience questioning children in Canadian court.

BACKGROUND: International research has explored lawyer-child interactions in court; however, little focus has been spent examining other aspects of lawyers' interactions with children (e.g., interview preparation; building rapport). OBJECTIVE: The present study investigated lawyer's self-reported interactions with child witnesses. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Participants included 96 lawyers (Mage = 40.34, SD = 11.07; 52 % female) practicing in Canada with experience questioning child witnesses (under 18 years old). METHODS: A survey was used to gather self-reported data on how lawyers prepare for, question, and respond to children as witnesses in court. We then explored whether these strategies differed depending on the role of the Canadian lawyer (i.e., prosecution or defence), experience, or gender. RESULTS: Results indicate that lawyers report and demonstrate knowledge consistent with current best practices in questioning children. While gender and experience did not appear to play a strong role in lawyer-child interactions, prosecutors reported behavior more consistent with best practices compared to defence lawyers. CONCLUSIONS: These findings provide important insight into strengths and weaknesses of lawyer-child interactions in court as well as highlight a strong need for future research to examine the link between self-reported behavior (i.e., perceived behavior) with observable behavior (i.e., actual behavior) in lawyer-child interactions.

"It doesn't work at all, that's my experience": Swedish forensic interviewers' views on interpreter-mediated child interviews.

BACKGROUND: Legal practitioners have expressed concerns regarding the quality of interpreter-mediated forensic interviews with child witnesses. OBJECTIVE: This mixed-methods study aimed to examine Swedish forensic interviewers' experiences of conducting child interviews via a language interpreter. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: Forty-one forensic interviewers from the Swedish Police Authority with experience conducting interpreter-mediated child interviews participated in a digital survey. METHODS: Their responses were analyzed using both qualitative (thematic and content analyses) and quantitative (descriptive and inferential statistics) approaches. RESULTS: The forensic interviewers' general experiences of conducting interpreter-mediated child interviews were negative. Limited access to authorized legal interpreters and doubts regarding the accuracy of interpretation were described as major obstacles in these investigations. The presence of an interpreter could negatively impact children's disclosure process and limit their chances of expressing their views during legal proceedings. CONCLUSIONS: According to Swedish forensic interviewers, the quality of interpreter-mediated child interviews urgently needs to be addressed. Our results are consistent with previous surveys from Australia and the United States, highlighting the international relevance of these topics. Future improvements are vital to ensure that all children are provided an equal right to be heard during criminal investigations, regardless of the native language.