Citation

Henderson HM, Lamb ME. Appl. Cogn. Psychol. 2019; 33(2): 201-213.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/acp.3466

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study examined whether the implementation of Section 28 (S28) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act and the introduction of mandatory ground rules hearings reduced the complexity of the questions English lawyers asked when examining child witnesses. This study compared cases with (n = 43) and without (n = 43) the S28 special measures and involved children aged 6-15 testifying as alleged victims of sexual abuse. Defense lawyers' questions in the S28 condition comprised fewer words, clauses, false starts, multiple negatives, and temporal and numeric attributes than in the non-S28 condition. When questioning younger children, lawyers used fewer words, clauses, references to "before/after," and passive voice. These results demonstrated that S28 successfully reduced the complexity of the questions and that lawyers in both conditions partially adjusted the complexity of their questions to accommodate children's developmental capabilities.

Language: en

Keywords

children; cross-examination; linguistic complexity; Section 28; special measures