Are Children Reliable Witnesses?

In this book, Dr. Ben Cotterill explores practices and influences that can increase or decrease the accuracy of children’s testimonies. Memory mechanisms and general developmental factors behind the capability of child witnesses are outlined, demonstrating their ability to describe or identify. Factors that affect jurors' perception of said children are also looked into in detail.

There have been many instances in which poor interviewing practices with children led to false imprisonments. Said occurrences demonstrate how both situational factors and individual differences can potentially compromise children’s eyewitness performance. Based upon what we now understand, can recommendations be made, so that, in a court of law, innocence is the key to achieving justice?

—Dr. Mark Blades, Senior Lecturer in Developmental Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

"I am delighted to endorse the book “Are children reliable witnesses” by Ben Cotterill. If you want to know more about how reliable children’s eyewitness accounts are, this is the book for you. There is a nice coverage of how well children can serve as witnesses to a crime with reference to social and cognitive factors that influence their accuracies. The author used a wide range of relevant high-profile cases drawn from a variety of jurisdictions and regions to anchor the development of each chapter. I am recommending this book as a valuable resource for academics and students in psychology, criminology, and law because there isn’t another in the market that fully captures children’s experience in the courtroom. Not only is it good for academics, but a great resource for social workers, forensic investigators and practitioners working within the Youth and Criminal Justice."

—Dr. Tochukwu Onwuegbusi, University of Lincoln, UK