Citation

Klemfuss JZ, Cleveland KC, Quas JA, Lyon TD. Leg. Crim. Psychol. 2017; 22(2): 228-241.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, British Psychological Society, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/lcrp.12096

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

PURPOSE Previous research has demonstrated that attorney question format relates to child witness' response productivity. However, little work has examined the extent to which attorneys provide temporal structure in their questions, and the effects of this structure on children's responding. The purpose of this study was to address this gap in the literature to identify methods by which attorneys increase children's response productivity on the stand without risking objections from opposing counsel for 'calling for narrative answers'.

METHODS In this study, we coded criminal court transcripts involving child witnesses (5-18 years) for narrative structure in attorney questions and productivity in children's responses. Half of the transcripts resulted in convictions, half in acquittals, balanced across key variables: child age, allegation severity, the child's relationship to the perpetrator, and the number of allegations.

RESULTS Prosecutors and defence attorneys varied substantially in their questioning tactics. Prosecutors used more temporal structure in their questions and varied their questioning by the age of the child. These variations had implications for children's response productivity.

CONCLUSIONS Results indicate that temporal structure is a novel and viable method for enhancing children's production of case-relevant details on the witness stand.

Language: en

Keywords

attorney questioning; child witnesses; legal testimony; response productivity; temporal structure