When children’s testimonies are used as evidence: how children’s accounts may impact child custodial decisions
Date
2018
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Journal of Child Custody
Abstract
In child custody cases, children oftentimes provide allegations
of experienced trauma against one of their parents. Such allegations can happen before any investigative interviews (e.g.,
by the police or child protective services) have taken place. A
central theme here concerns how to appraise such allegations
and make certain that children’s accounts are taken seriously.
In the current special issue, the focus is on new work on the
functioning of children’s memory and its relation to trauma or
work on children’s suggestibility and memory when they are
traumatized. Specifically, key experts in the field of children’s
memory provided contributions on: (1) the impact of interviewer support and rapport building on children’s testimonies,
(2) the role of parental alienation in children’s testimonial
accuracy, and (3) different types of false memories in children’s memory reports.
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Keywords
children's memory, research, forensic interview, false memories, rapport, parental alienation, International Resources, Europe
Citation
Otgaar, H., & Howe, M. L. (2018). When children’s testimonies are used as evidence: how children’s accounts may impact child custodial decisions. Journal of Child Custody, 15(4), 263-267.