Opinions of legal professionals: Comparing child and adult witnesses' memory report capabilities
Författare
Summary, in English
The opinions of legal professionals about child and adult witnesses might influence the likelihood that a case is allowed to proceed through the different stages of the legal process. With the aim of knowing the opinions of legal practitioners about child and adult witnesses, 84 legal professionals (Swedish police, prosecutors, and attorneys) were surveyed about their beliefs about child and adult eyewitness memory (and metamemory) abilities. The respondents answered 27 questions relating to nine forensically relevant belief areas in which they compared the memory ability of children (ages 7 to 11 years) and adults. The results showed no differences in assessment among members of different professions and a general trend suggesting that, across the professions, children were believed to be poorer witnesses than adults regarding their memory abilities. Moreover, the professionals' within-group consensus was very low. These results are discussed in the context of eyewitness research findings and with respect to the implications for both legal and research practice. (C) 2014 Colegio Oficial de Psicologos de Madrid. Production by Elsevier Espana, S.L. All rights reserved.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2014
Språk
Engelska
Sidor
79-89
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
The European Journal of Psychology Applied To Legal Context
Volym
6
Issue
2
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Elsevier
Ämne
- Psychology
Nyckelord
- Eyewitnesses
- Legal professionals
- Opinions
- Children
- Adults
- Event
- memory
- Metamemory
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 1989-4007