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Overview Accurate knowledge regarding the dynamics of child sexual abuse and the reliability of children’s eyewitness testimony is crucial for juror decision-making. However, if jurors harbor mistaken beliefs about how children respond to sexual abuse or are not aware of children’s ability to accurately describe their experiences, the likelihood of reaching a fair verdict is reduced. […]
Archive | Forensic Interviewing of Children
Reliability of Hearsay Testimony
By Daniel H. Swerdlow-Freed, Ph.D. on April 14, 2017 in Forensic Interviewing of Children, Forensic Services
What is hearsay testimony? There are numerous circumstances where adults provide information about their conversations with children. In informal settings, one parent may report to the other a child’s statement, or a teacher may report a conversation with a child to the child’s parent. In a legal proceeding, statements made by a child to a […]
Symptoms and Sexually Abused Children
By Daniel H. Swerdlow-Freed, Ph.D. on December 28, 2015 in Forensic Interviewing of Children, Forensic Services
Determining whether a child has been sexually abused can be a challenging and complex process. Child sexual abuse is not an encounter that causes specific, unambiguous symptoms or behavioral problems common to every child victim. Other factors that may make a valid determination difficult include the limited vocabulary of young children, the absence of definitive […]
Research on Disclosure of Child Sexual Abuse
By Daniel H. Swerdlow-Freed, Ph.D. on December 28, 2015 in Forensic Interviewing of Children, Forensic Services
Prevalence of Sexual Abuse of Children Despite widespread agreement that sexual abuse of children is a serious problem, disagreement exists about its prevalence. The true scope of child sexual abuse is difficult to measure because of inaccuracies inherent in the methodology of empirical research. For example, incidence figures from child protection agencies include only cases […]
Questioning Strategies for Forensic Interviews of Children
By Daniel H. Swerdlow-Freed, Ph.D. on December 28, 2015 in Forensic Interviewing of Children, Forensic Services
When children disclose sexual abuse it is common for them to undergo a forensic interview, often at a child advocacy center with a professional who has received specialized training in interviewing children. A forensic interview is a structured conversation that is designed to obtain information from the child about an event the child has experienced. […]
