Opinions of legal professionals: Comparing child and adult witnesses’ memory report capabilities

IF 7.6 1区社会学 Q1 LAW

European Journal of Psychology Applied To Legal Context Pub Date : 2014-07-01 DOI:10.1016/j.ejpal.2014.06.001

Jens Knutsson , Carl Martin Allwood

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引用次数: 15

Abstract

The opinions of legal professionals about child and adult witnesses might influence the likelihood that a case is allowed to proceed through the different stages of the legal process. With the aim of knowing the opinions of legal practitioners about child and adult witnesses, 84 legal professionals (Swedish police, prosecutors, and attorneys) were surveyed about their beliefs about child and adult eyewitness memory (and metamemory) abilities. The respondents answered 27 questions relating to nine forensically relevant belief areas in which they compared the memory ability of children (ages 7 to 11 years) and adults. The results showed no differences in assessment among members of different professions and a general trend suggesting that, across the professions, children were believed to be poorer witnesses than adults regarding their memory abilities. Moreover, the professionals’ within-group consensus was very low. These results are discussed in the context of eyewitness research findings and with respect to the implications for both legal and research practice.

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法律专业人士意见:比较儿童和成人证人的记忆报告能力

法律专业人员对儿童和成人证人的意见可能会影响案件获准通过法律程序不同阶段的可能性。为了了解法律从业者对儿童和成人证人的看法，对84名法律专业人员(瑞典警察、检察官和律师)进行了调查，了解他们对儿童和成人证人记忆(和元记忆)能力的看法。受访者回答了27个问题，涉及9个与法医相关的信念领域，他们在这些领域中比较了儿童(7至11岁)和成年人的记忆能力。结果显示，不同职业的成员在评估上没有差异，总体趋势表明，在所有职业中，儿童被认为在记忆能力方面比成年人更差。此外，专业人员的群体内共识非常低。这些结果在目击者研究结果的背景下进行了讨论，并就法律和研究实践的影响进行了讨论。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

European Journal of Psychology Applied To Legal Context Multiple-

CiteScore

14.60

自引率

9.50%

发文量

审稿时长

12 weeks

期刊介绍： The European Journal of Psychology Applied to Legal Context, the official journal of the Sociedad Española de Psicología Jurídica y Forense [Spanish Society of Forensic Psychology] and the Asociación Iberoamericana de Justicia Terapéutica [Latin-American Association of Therapeutic Jurisprudence], publishes empirical articles and meta-analytic reviews of topics dealing with psychology and law (e.g., legal decision making, eyewitness). The journal is aimed at researchers, academics and professionals in Psychology, Law, Social Work, Forensic Sciences, Educators and, in general, people related with Social Sciences and the Law.