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Child witnesses in criminal courts
Author(s) -
FLIN RHONA
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
children and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 1099-0860
pISSN - 0951-0605
DOI - 10.1111/j.1099-0860.1990.tb00366.x
Subject(s) - psychology , principal (computer security) , criminology , anxiety , quality (philosophy) , bystander effect , social psychology , psychiatry , philosophy , epistemology , computer science , operating system
SUMMARY. Children attend criminal courts to give evidence both as victims and as bystander witnesses. It is widely accepted that this can be a very stressful experience for children, particularly for those who have been victimised. Before effective reforms can be introduced, it is necessary to identify the principal sources of stress and the possible results of this anxiety on the quality of the child's evidence and on their emotional wellbeing. This article reviews the latest psychological research into the causes and effects of stress on child witnesses taking in evidence from studies in a number of countries, ft is based on recent work by Spencer and Flin (1990)