Psychologist aims to help child witnesses

Photo / Glenn Taylor

A Dunedin psychologist will test a new programme to prepare child witnesses for cross-examination by trying it out on children testifying in real criminal trials.

Dr Rachel Zajac, of Otago University, said world-leading New Zealand reforms in the way legal evidence is acquired from children had "largely ignored" the cross-examination process in courts.

This raised concerns about the potential for miscarriages of justice, as there was research showing children had difficulty remaining accurate under cross-examination.

A team led by Dr Zajac was yesterday granted $796,598 in taxpayer funding over three years to investigate ways of helping children under cross-examination.

She has developed a programme to prepare children that combines warnings about the questioning with practice at answering cross-examination questions about an event unrelated to the one on which they will testify.

Part of the funding will be used for four studies to investigate how children's accuracy is influenced by the content and timing of the programme and the way it is delivered.

Children aged between 7 and 11 will take part in a laboratory-based reconstruction that mirrors typical events seen by eyewitnesses. After a surprise visit to a police station for activities such as being fingerprinted, they will be interviewed using standard direct questions and cross-examination to see how they recall events.

Some of the children will have been through Dr Zajac's programme, and their performance will be compared with that of children questioned without preparation.

The tests will also show whether individual differences - such as self-confidence and assertiveness - influence the accuracy of their recall under cross-examination, and which types of children are most likely to benefit from the programme.

In 2003, the Courts Minister of the day, Rick Barker, launched a Government-funded education service designed to lessen the stress felt by the 1000 children giving evidence each year.

Court-based victim advisers were assigned to provide resource material and support for children and their caregivers.

But research funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation, with contributions from the Ministries of Social Development and Justice and the police, was released this year, showing some children cowering under cross-examination, being mocked in court and facing language barriers and excessive delays.

- NZPA