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The juridical impact of psychological expert testimony in a simulated child sexual abuse trial

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Law and Human Behavior

Abstract

Using a simulated child sexual abuse case, our study investigated the impact of expert testimony about cognitive development in children on jury decisions. Twenty-four gender-balanced panels, each of 6 mock jurors, viewed a videotaped simulation of a criminal court trial in which age of the child victim/witness (6, 9, or 12 years), sex of the child, and the presence or absence of expert testimony were manipulated. There were significant main effects for exposure to expert testimony on jurors' ratings of the child on the factors addressed by the expert: memory expertise, susceptibility to suggestion, and reality monitoring ability. Jurors rated the expert testimony highly in terms of its helpfulness and impartiality. There were no significant main effects for child credibility ratings according to age or sex of the child victims, but juror gender polarization effects were noted, with females significantly more likely to rate the child's credibility higher and to find the defendant guilty.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Tasmania, 7001, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

    Michael J. Crowley & Peter J. Ball

Authors
  1. Michael J. Crowley
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  2. M. Gemma O'Callaghan
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  3. Peter J. Ball
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Additional information

We thank Kate Warner and Therese Henning from the Faculty of Law, University of Tasmania, for their advice and assistance in preparing the trial transcripts, and Rick Snell, Emma Gunn, and Trudy Witbreuk from the Faculty of Law for their assistance in portraying the roles of judge, prsecuting counsel, and defense counsel, respectively. We are grateful also to Brian Rieusset, Senior Technical Officer at the University of Tasmania, for his invaluable assistance in videotaping the children's statements and the mock trial and for his help in editing the videotapes. This research was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council.

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Crowley, M.J., O'Callaghan, M.G. & Ball, P.J. The juridical impact of psychological expert testimony in a simulated child sexual abuse trial. Law Hum Behav 18, 89–105 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01499146

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