Legal Psychology for Minors

Reviews the book, Child Victims, Child Witnesses: Understanding and Improving Testimony edited by Gail S. Goodman and Bette L. Bottoms (see record 1993-97464-000). The psychological investigation of children as witnesses began at least as far back as the turn of this century but has not been consist...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inContemporary psychology Vol. 39; no. 7; pp. 712 - 714
Main Author Dent, Helen R.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 01.07.1994
Subjects
Child Abuse
Crime Victims
Forensic Psychology
Human
Legal Testimony
Witnesses
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Summary:Reviews the book, Child Victims, Child Witnesses: Understanding and Improving Testimony edited by Gail S. Goodman and Bette L. Bottoms (see record 1993-97464-000). The psychological investigation of children as witnesses began at least as far back as the turn of this century but has not been consistently pursued. Goodman and Bottoms are the first authors to explicitly acknowledge the contribution made by the issue of child sexual abuse to this area of study. One of the strengths of their book is that they integrate findings relevant to both areas to produce a focus on the experience of being a child complainant witness. Goodman and Bottoms also claim that the book makes a contribution to basic science. There is no doubt that a valuable contribution is made to applied psychology. Most of the authors report original data, and as a whole the book substantially pushes forward the thinking and knowledge about child complainant witnesses. With regard to current theoretical issues in developmental, social, and cognitive psychology, the contribution is less obvious but nonetheless exists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
ISSN:0010-7549
DOI:10.1037/034489