Disclosure of child sexual abuse: expressed emotions and credibility judgments of a child mock victim

ABSTRACT

Both lay persons and professionals believe that the emotions displayed by a child witness during disclosure of sexual abuse are a factor of importance when judging the child's credibility. Unfortunately, not all children display emotions according to expectations, leading to misjudgments, and possible miscarriage of justice. In the present study, we examined how lay people's credibility judgments were influenced by a child's displayed emotions during the disclosure of sexual abuse. Participants (n = 119), viewed video recordings of a mock police interview of an 11-year-old child actor disclosing sexual abuse, displaying one of four emotional expressions (angry, sad, neutral, and positive). Results showed that participants were strongly influenced by the emotions displayed; in particular, the display of strong negative emotions (anger) or positive emotions during disclosure significantly reduced judged credibility. The credibility ratings predicted the participantś judgments of the defendant's guilt and the willingness to pass a guilty vote in a hypothetical trial.

KEYWORDS:

• Disclosure of sexual abuse
• expressed emotions
• credibility
• child witness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Children's house: To provide children exposed to violence and sexual abuse better assistance and treatment services, the Norwegian government has established a nationwide scheme of children's houses. The children's houses are equipped for both judicial and medical examinations, bringing professionals together under one roof. We employed a professionally trained police interviewer as is now standard procedure.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by grants to the four authors from the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs [13/60525].