Children's testimony

Abstract

Background: Most cases of child sexual use are identified through statements made by children and in many cases such statements constitute the only evidence available that abuse occurred. Despite its importance the use of children's testimonies is however complicated by the fact that a substantial proportion of victims delay disclosure of abuse or even deny such experiences when asked for them directly. A further complicating factor, highlighted by an abundance of experimental research, performed mainly on English speaking populations, is that autobiographical statements by young children appear to be more susceptible to suggestion than older children and adults.

The primary aims of the studies described in the present thesis were first to identify possible mechanisms behind delayed disclosure and non-disclosure of child sexual abuse among Swedish children, second to test the hypothesis that age related differences in suggestibility can be found in archival material from different historical and cultural contexts than that of 20th century English speaking countries and third to identify and describe possible mechanisms of suggestion in these contexts.

Methods: Archival data describing forensic interviews with 10 children with histories of child sexual abuse which were video-taped by the perpetrator; archival data describing 47 cases child sexual abuse which were corroborated by confessions from the perpetrator, archival data describing the making of false allegations of Satanist abductions during the 17 th century as made by some 500 children and experimental data from one study performed on 48, 5-7 year old children were used to address these issues.

Results: Young children showed an increased tendency to delay disclosure of child sexual abuse and an increased susceptibility to suggestion when compared to older children. Both cognitive and social factors seem to determine these results.

Conclusion: The cognitive and social context in which a child's testimony is given may be important to the validity of the testimony.