TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2007//
TI  - Judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors affecting children's testimony about sexual abuse
JO  - Journal of psychology, The
A1  - Leander, Lina
A1  - Christianson, S. A.
A1  - Svedin, Carl-Göran
A1  - Granhag, Par-Anders
SP  - 341
EP  - 357
VL  - 141
IS  - 4
N2  - The authors examined Swedish judges', lay judges', and police officers' beliefs about factors that may complicate or facilitate children's reports of sexual abuse. Participants (N = 562) rated potential complicating and facilitating factors and freely reported which criteria they considered important when assessing the reliability of child witnesses. The groups had similar opinions regarding which factors are complicating and facilitating. Furthermore, the groups tended to regard emotional factors as more complicating than cognitive factors. When freely reporting criteria that are important when assessing reliability, judges and police officers reported criteria pertaining mainly to the child, whereas lay judges reported mainly criteria pertaining mainly to the police interview. Results indicate that participants believe that children have the capacity to remember and report about abuse but are hindered in doing so by emotional factors. Results also suggest that police officers may underestimate their own influence on the reliability of children's reports.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0022-3980
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/
ID  - ref1
ER  -