Fears Of Child Witnesses
School of Law, Justice & Community Studies
HND Criminology Year 1
Psychology of Crime 2
June 2010
Child Witness and their common fears:
Children will have fears of appearing in a courtroom. Seeing the accused, speaking in front of number of people, feeling the pressure to conform and satisfy the questioner, confusing what they said before, misunderstanding questions, etc. Tom is no exception; therefore the courts have special arrangements made for child witnesses.
Special arrangements can be made to make Tom feel at ease with giving evidence at court, these are[1]:
• A screen can be set up to prevent the accused, Alan, seeing Tom. Screen arrangements …show more content…
This is a less daunting means of providing evidence for children and because of that it enables them to communicate more clearly and with confidence. Also Plotnikoff and Woolfson (2004) found that children would prefer to have choice and be fully informed of each method rather than just be allocated one measure over the other. Having choice offers the child witness time to consider a method more in their comfort zone and more control over their participation in the court …show more content…
In code D, it states that if a suspect has an unusual or recognisable feature which “cannot be replicated on other members of the identification parade”[5] then the police ought to take steps in concealing the feature in order to make all members “resemble each other in general appearance”[6]. However, the police chose to place the accused in a public place where he was easily recognisable with his features.
The judge has to take into account that eyewitness descriptions are generally accurate regarding certain features such as sex, hair colour and any distinguishing features, whereas age, height and ethnic origin are rather inaccurate[7]. Hence, based on the eyewitness testimonies regarding the accused, Alan was identified as being present at the scene of the
HND Criminology Year 1
Psychology of Crime 2
June 2010
Child Witness and their common fears:
Children will have fears of appearing in a courtroom. Seeing the accused, speaking in front of number of people, feeling the pressure to conform and satisfy the questioner, confusing what they said before, misunderstanding questions, etc. Tom is no exception; therefore the courts have special arrangements made for child witnesses.
Special arrangements can be made to make Tom feel at ease with giving evidence at court, these are[1]:
• A screen can be set up to prevent the accused, Alan, seeing Tom. Screen arrangements …show more content…
This is a less daunting means of providing evidence for children and because of that it enables them to communicate more clearly and with confidence. Also Plotnikoff and Woolfson (2004) found that children would prefer to have choice and be fully informed of each method rather than just be allocated one measure over the other. Having choice offers the child witness time to consider a method more in their comfort zone and more control over their participation in the court …show more content…
In code D, it states that if a suspect has an unusual or recognisable feature which “cannot be replicated on other members of the identification parade”[5] then the police ought to take steps in concealing the feature in order to make all members “resemble each other in general appearance”[6]. However, the police chose to place the accused in a public place where he was easily recognisable with his features.
The judge has to take into account that eyewitness descriptions are generally accurate regarding certain features such as sex, hair colour and any distinguishing features, whereas age, height and ethnic origin are rather inaccurate[7]. Hence, based on the eyewitness testimonies regarding the accused, Alan was identified as being present at the scene of the