Differential effects of direct and cross examination on mock jurors’ perceptions and memory in cases of child sexual abuse

Abstract

When children testify in cases of child sexual abuse (CSA), they often provide minimal responses to attorneys’ questions. Thus, how attorneys ask questions may be particularly influential in shaping jurors’ perceptions and memory for case details. This study examined mock jurors’ perceptions after reading an excerpt of a CSA trial transcript. Participants’ memory of the excerpt was tested after a two-day delay. We examined how reading a direct or cross-examination excerpt that included either high or low temporal structure impacted participants’ perceptions, verdict decisions and memory reports. We found that participants who read a direct examination excerpt rated the child witness as more credible, were more likely to convict the defendant and had more accurate memory reports than those who read a cross-examination excerpt, regardless of temporal structure. Suggestions for improving jurors’ comprehension and recall of child statements presented as evidence in CSA cases are discussed.

Key words:

• Attorney questioning
• child sexual abuse
• child witness
• juror decisions
• memory
• temporal structure

Ethical standards

Declaration of conflicts of interest

Alma P. Olaguez has declared no conflicts of interest

Jessica Zoe Klemfuss has declared no conflicts of interest

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee at the University of California, Irvine and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study