14 DAY TRIAL // Children who have been subjected to abuse are rarely allowed to testify in court, since their memories are known to be very malleable. However, a new research from the University of Cambridge demonstrates that the young ones can be made into reliable witnesses, through sensitive interviewing.
The group behind this research demonstrated that even kids as young as three or four years old could be educated on how to react to abuse, so that what they say can reveal the actual truth. They can be made to talk informatively and accurately about experiences they've been through while abused.
Many times when subjected to abuse, children are alone with the people who are hurting them. In other words, in the eyes of the law, it's their word against that of adults. Unfortunately, scientific studies have shown that kids oftentimes react disproportionately to what actually happened.
This can be done through either under- or over-estimating the events in question. Additionally, their minds are not yet fully formed, so a carefully-planned line of inquiry from a lawyer could literally change their memories about what happened.
This has been an obstacle to children's credibility in abuse cases. In light of the new study, police and social workers may have to revise the way they address such issues. The specialist doing the interview needs to understand each child’s strengths and weaknesses, the Cambridge team explains.
“In the light of this recent research, we need to rethink the way in which we approach young witnesses. All too often we under-estimate children’s abilities to remember and describe their experiences – and the consequences of this are very grave,” study researcher Michael Lamb explains.
“Young children are often the only possible sources of information about abuse, and if we do not interview them, we will not be able to protect them or other possible victims,” adds the expert, who is a professor of psychology at the university.
The work was carried out in collaboration with scientists at the University of Haifa, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Israeli Child Investigation Unit.
Lamb says that people interviewing children tend to lead the young ones with certain questions, in a misguided attempt to help them out. Some workers also try to avoid inflicting more pain on the child, so they avoid dwelling on any issue in detail.
Combine this with children's confusion about multiple instances of abuse and delayed reporting, and you have a recipe for disaster. However, thanks to the new study, it may soon become possible to circumvent these issues.