Child Sexual abuse is the hardest abuse to prove in a court of law and relies heavily on the trustworthiness of a child’s statement. Criminal courts look at several reliability factors to be present when assessing a child’s hearsay statement for credibility. After viewing Honesty’s disclosure video, I conclude that Honesty’s statement is trustworthy as evidenced by several reliability factors I observed in the video.
The first reliability factor I noticed in the video was the proper questioning by Interviewer/use of age appropriate words. The interviewer discussed with Honesty the purpose of the interview, and established appropriate vocabulary for things they talked about like “private part” and “butt cheek” when describing body parts letting …show more content…
At 11:01:17 on the video, the interviewer asked Honesty how everyone was able to fit, lying on the black couch. Honesty used the couch diagram on the chart in front of her and pointed to the position on the couch were everyone was laying. Honesty also used the diagram in front of her to show where she did not liked to be touched on her body, as well as were her daddy touched her with his private part. When speaking of people in her family, Honesty would point to the names on the chart in effort to let the interviewer know who she was talking about. Honesty also used gestures to demonstrate how she laying on the black couch on the video at 11:07, and again when asked “where her daddy’s hands were when his private part touched her butt cheek” and once again at 11:14 in the video when she was describing how her “daddy put his private part in there and let my butt cheeks go.” At 11:27:59 in the video, Honesty was describing the second incident of abuse to the interviewer and stated, “I told my daddy that I was scared and he said ok. He pulled his pants down and pulled my pants down and got on top of me and tried to put is private in me and said, “I would never hurt this I will always take care of this.” This example demonstrates idiosyncratic language, language that an adult would use, and would sound odd coming from a child.
A third reliability …show more content…
Honesty was asked several times in a couple of different ways how the incident on the couch occurred. Honesty’s and was very consistent with the details each time she described it. Honesty was asked at 11:02, 11:07, and 11:16 in the video if there were other people in the room at the time of the incident how come no one saw, and Honesty’s answer remained the same that everyone was a sleep. Honesty was also consistently asked through out the interview if she saw her daddy’s private part and each time she replied no. Honesty was also very consistent with stating that there have only been two incidents when she was 9 years old and each incident was her Daddy trying to put his private part in her butt
The first reliability factor I noticed in the video was the proper questioning by Interviewer/use of age appropriate words. The interviewer discussed with Honesty the purpose of the interview, and established appropriate vocabulary for things they talked about like “private part” and “butt cheek” when describing body parts letting …show more content…
At 11:01:17 on the video, the interviewer asked Honesty how everyone was able to fit, lying on the black couch. Honesty used the couch diagram on the chart in front of her and pointed to the position on the couch were everyone was laying. Honesty also used the diagram in front of her to show where she did not liked to be touched on her body, as well as were her daddy touched her with his private part. When speaking of people in her family, Honesty would point to the names on the chart in effort to let the interviewer know who she was talking about. Honesty also used gestures to demonstrate how she laying on the black couch on the video at 11:07, and again when asked “where her daddy’s hands were when his private part touched her butt cheek” and once again at 11:14 in the video when she was describing how her “daddy put his private part in there and let my butt cheeks go.” At 11:27:59 in the video, Honesty was describing the second incident of abuse to the interviewer and stated, “I told my daddy that I was scared and he said ok. He pulled his pants down and pulled my pants down and got on top of me and tried to put is private in me and said, “I would never hurt this I will always take care of this.” This example demonstrates idiosyncratic language, language that an adult would use, and would sound odd coming from a child.
A third reliability …show more content…
Honesty was asked several times in a couple of different ways how the incident on the couch occurred. Honesty’s and was very consistent with the details each time she described it. Honesty was asked at 11:02, 11:07, and 11:16 in the video if there were other people in the room at the time of the incident how come no one saw, and Honesty’s answer remained the same that everyone was a sleep. Honesty was also consistently asked through out the interview if she saw her daddy’s private part and each time she replied no. Honesty was also very consistent with stating that there have only been two incidents when she was 9 years old and each incident was her Daddy trying to put his private part in her butt