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The truth and lie story: developing a tool for assessing child witnesses' ability to differentiate between truth and lies
Author(s) -
McCarron Anna Louise,
Ridgway Sue,
Williams Anne
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
child abuse review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-0852
pISSN - 0952-9136
DOI - 10.1002/car.832
Subject(s) - credibility , scrutiny , memorandum , interview , psychology , rubric , law , sociology , political science , pedagogy
Within the court arena, the credibility and competency of child witnesses often comes under scrutiny and the decision whether a child is considered to be credible or not strongly inuences whether their evidence will be heard by the court. A child's ability to demonstrate that they understand the difference between truth and lies and the importance of telling the truth is synonymous with competency. Research suggests that many professionals undertaking the task of establishing competency nd it very difcult, especially with younger children (Aldridge and Wood, 1997, cited in Aldridge and Wood, 1998). This paper describes the process involved in developing an innovative tool for helping professionals assess whether a child understands the difference between truth and lies. The development of the tool arose from the concerns of ofcers from Northumbria Police Force (in the UK) relating to interviews following the protocol of the government's Memorandum of Good Practice (Home Ofce and Department of Health, 1992) on interviewing child witnesses, and the need to establish whether child witnesses can differentiate between truth and lies. As an example of good practice, The Truth and Lie Story described here has now been included in the Home Ofce (2002) guidance Achieving Best Evidence in Criminal Proceedings , which is a revision of the 1992 Memorandum of Good Practice . Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.