The Child Witness: Legal Issues and Dilemmas - Softcover

Walker, Nancy E.; Wrightsman, Lawrence S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803937725 ISBN 13: 9780803937727

Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc, 1991

Synopsis

This is the first book for professionals who seek an integrated, up-to-date review of psychological research and recent court cases dealing with children as witnesses in court. It is organized around four issues: the competence of children as witnesses, the credibility of children, the rights of children and the rights of the accused. Child and adolescent development is reviewed from a psychological perspective. Recent research on issues of comprehension, memory and communication skills of children are described alongside the reactions of various audiences - lawyers, judges and juries - to the children's credibility. Procedures designed to reduce the traumatization of children who testify in court are described and evaluated.

About this title

About the Author:

Lawrence S. Wrightsman (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1959) was professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Wrightsman authored or edited ten other books relevant to the legal system, including Psychology and the Legal System (4th edition, coauthored with Michael T. Nietzel and William H. Fortune), The American Jury on Trial (coauthored with Saul M. Kassin), and Judicial Decision Making: Is Psychology Relevant? He was invited to contribute the entry on the law and psychology for the recently published Encyclopedia of Psychology, sponsored by the American Psychological Association and published by Oxford University Press. His research topics included jury selection procedures, reactions to police interrogations, and the impact of judicial instructions. He also served as a trial consultant and testified as an expert witness. Wrightsman is a former president of both the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the Society of Personality and Social Psychology. In 1998 he was the recipient of a Distinguished Career Award from the American Psychology-Law Society. This award has been made on only six occasions in the 30-year history of the organization; the preceding awardee was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun.

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0803937725
• ISBN 13: 9780803937727
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304