Inaccuracies In Children's Testimony

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The purpose of this document is to explain the relationship between children’s memory and testimony. There are several ways that children’s memory can affect the testimony given by them. To begin, inaccuracies in children’s testimony are difficult to pinpoint. However, there are a few possible causes to inaccuracies. These possible causes are memory, suggestibility, and obedience to authority (Anderson, Truth in Children's Testimony, 1998). One major issue brought up by the journal article, Truth in Children’s Testimony is the memory of children. The memory of children is so easily corrupted (Anderson, Truth in Children's Testimony, 1998). Children will say what the adults want them to say most of the time to please the adults (Anderson, …show more content…

A childs memory isn’t so great and can be easily manipulated. (Anderson, Truth in Children's Testimony, 1998) According to the article Truth in Children’s Testimony, “stress tends to focus children’s memories on important information at the expense of peripheral details”. This means that children will remember major details of the crime, but not the minor details. Children are also unlikely to come up with crimes themselves (Anderson, Truth in Children's Testimony, 1998). According to the article, Truth in Children’s Testimony, “the main concern with children’s testimony is not their ability to remember, but the potential for suggestibility” (Anderson, Truth in Children's Testimony, 1998). Children may also be easily swayed to give a certain answer because they were told to by the adults. This is obedience to authority. This affects the reliability of the children’s testimony majorly. The adult or suspect may be a murderer or rapist, and the child could be deceptive about what actually happened because that adult figure either threatened them if they didn’t give a good answer, or that the child thinks that it’s parents could never do wrong (Anderson, Truth in Children's Testimony, 1998). Children may remain loyal to authoritative figures during

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