Andrews, S. J., Lamb, M. E., & Lyon, T. D.2015-01-262015-01-262014Andrews, S. J., Lamb, M. E., & Lyon, T. D. (2014). Question Types, Responsiveness and Self‐contradictions when Prosecutors and Defense Attorneys Question Alleged Victims of Child Sexual Abuse. Applied Cognitive Psychology.http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1123&context=thomaslyonhttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/2102We examined 120 trial transcripts of 6- to 12-year-old children testifying to sexual abuse. Age and attorney role were analyzed in relation to question types, children’s responsiveness, and self-contradiction frequency. A total of 48,716 question-response pairs were identified. Attorneys used more closed-ended than open-ended prompts. Prosecutors used more invitations (3% vs. 0%), directives and option-posing prompts than defence attorneys, who used more suggestive prompts than prosecutors. Children were more unresponsive to defence attorneys than to prosecutors. Self-contradictions were identified in 95% of the cases. Defence attorneys elicited more self-contradictions than prosecutors, but nearly all prosecutors (86%) elicited at least one self-contradiction. Suggestive questions elicited more self-contradictions than any other prompt type. There were no associations with age. These findings suggest that neither prosecutors nor defence attorneys question children in developmentally appropriate ways. (Author Abstract)en-USchild abusechild sexual abusecourttestimonyInternational ResourcesEnglandArticle