Henry, L;
Ridley, A;
Perry, J;
Crane, L;
(2011)
Perceived credibility and eyewitness testimony of children with intellectual disabilities.
Journal of Intellectual Disability Research
, 55
(4)
pp. 385-391.
10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01383.x.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Although children with intellectual disabilities (ID) often provide accurate witness testimony, jurors tend to perceive their witness statements to be inherently unreliable. METHOD: The current study explored the free recall transcripts of child witnesses with ID who had watched a video clip, relative to those of typically developing (TD) age-matched children, and assessed how mock jurors perceived these transcripts in the absence of knowledge of group (ID or TD) membership. A further aim of this research was to determine whether perceptions of credibility were associated with levels of free recall and witness characteristics (anxiety and mental age). RESULTS: Mock jurors rated the testimony of children with ID as less credible than that of a TD age-matched comparison group. This was largely because of the transcripts of the children with ID containing fewer details than those of the TD children. Anxiety and mental age were found to have no effect on perceived levels of credibility. CONCLUSIONS: It appears that even in the absence of knowledge of whether a child does or does not have ID, this factor still affects perceptions of credibility among mock jurors. Our findings suggest that fundamental differences in the quality of the witness transcripts lead to lower perceptions of credibility for children with ID.
Type: | Article |
---|---|
Title: | Perceived credibility and eyewitness testimony of children with intellectual disabilities |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
DOI: | 10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01383.x |
Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2788.2011.01383.x |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
Keywords: | children, credibility, eyewitness testimony, intellectual disabilities, juror perceptions |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Psychology and Human Development |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1547088 |
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