Every year there are hundreds of thousands of children who are suffering from, or witnessing crime (Hobbs, Johnson, Goodman, Bederian-Gardner, Lawler, Vargas, & Mendoza, 2014). Sometimes, these children also serve as witnesses in forensic investigations and proceedings, especially in cases involving sexual abuse, or in cases where there may be no visible evidence or physical indications of a crime, therefore relying on the child’s eyewitness memory (Hobbs et al., 2014). Ever since colonial times in the United States, there has been a great deal of skepticism about the testimony of child witnesses, until the 1970s and 1980s when there was an increase in empirical research on the credibility of child witnesses (Ruby, 1997). It was also during
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Often times, a child’s testimony is the only evidence of alleged abuse, as they are often times the key witness or victim of the crime, therefore it is of great importance to conduct forensic interviews that are free of bias and misleading information. It can be particularly difficult to assess the veracity of children’s accounts of abuse because there is typically no physical evidence, and the only witnesses to the crime are often the victim and the perpetrator (Pezdek, Marrow, Blandon-Gitlin, Quas, Bidrose, Goodman, Saywitz, Pipe, Rogers, & Brodie, 2004, pp. 119). One study investigated the reliability of CBCA in discriminating allegations of sexual abuse, in children, through the course of court hearings, by comparing CBCA results with the courts final, and through unappeasable sentences (Roma, P., Martini, P. S., Sabatello, U., Tatarelli, R., & Ferracuti, S. 2011). Additionally, this study explored whether CBCA scores correlated with age, or whether some of the criteria proved to be more beneficial than others, in distinguishing cases of confirmed and unconfirmed sexual abuse in children (Roma et al., 2011). The researchers found that CBCA scores positively correlated with age, and independently correlated with abuse (Roma et al., 2011). Therefore, given the ability CBCA demonstrated to differentiate the confirmed and unconfirmed cases of suspected child abuse, CBCA proves to serve as a useful tool for expert witnesses (Roma et al.,
Often times, a child’s testimony is the only evidence of alleged abuse, as they are often times the key witness or victim of the crime, therefore it is of great importance to conduct forensic interviews that are free of bias and misleading information. It can be particularly difficult to assess the veracity of children’s accounts of abuse because there is typically no physical evidence, and the only witnesses to the crime are often the victim and the perpetrator (Pezdek, Marrow, Blandon-Gitlin, Quas, Bidrose, Goodman, Saywitz, Pipe, Rogers, & Brodie, 2004, pp. 119). One study investigated the reliability of CBCA in discriminating allegations of sexual abuse, in children, through the course of court hearings, by comparing CBCA results with the courts final, and through unappeasable sentences (Roma, P., Martini, P. S., Sabatello, U., Tatarelli, R., & Ferracuti, S. 2011). Additionally, this study explored whether CBCA scores correlated with age, or whether some of the criteria proved to be more beneficial than others, in distinguishing cases of confirmed and unconfirmed sexual abuse in children (Roma et al., 2011). The researchers found that CBCA scores positively correlated with age, and independently correlated with abuse (Roma et al., 2011). Therefore, given the ability CBCA demonstrated to differentiate the confirmed and unconfirmed cases of suspected child abuse, CBCA proves to serve as a useful tool for expert witnesses (Roma et al.,