This study examined the effects of secret instructions (distinguishing between good/bad secrets and encouraging disclosure of bad secrets) and yes/no questions (DID: “Did the toy break?” versus DYR: “Do you remember if the toy broke?”) on 262 4- to 9-year old maltreated and nonmaltreated...

Part II defines the relevance ratio and explains its relation to probabilistic reasoning. Part Ill uses the ratio to explore the ways in which physicians have misused the term "consistent with sexual abuse" in child abuse cases. Part IV considers whether symptoms "consistent with sexual abuse,"...

This book chapter reviews 14 retrospective surveys inquiring into respondent's child abuse experiences and whether they ever disclosed abuse as children. I discuss the advantages of retrospective surveys (representativeness, reduced likelihood of false allegations, reduced suspicion bias)....

Controversy abounds regarding the process by which child sexual abuse (CSA) victims disclose their experiences, particularly the extent to which and reasons why some children, once having disclosed abuse, later recant their allegations. This study examined the prevalence and predictors of...

In this chapter we provide an overview of psychological issues involving children's capacities as witnesses. First, we discuss the kinds of cases in which children are usually involved. Across different courts, one most often sees children describing abuse at the hands of familiar adults....

This study examined relations between children's false statements and response latency, executive functioning, and truth-lie understanding in order to understand what underlies children's emerging ability to make false statements. A total of 158 (2- to 5-year-old) children earned prizes for...

This study examined whether maltreated children are capable of judging the location and order of significant events with respect to a recurring landmark event. 167 6- to 10-year-old maltreated children were asked whether the current day, their last court visit, and their last change in placement...

Background: Children alleging sexual abuse rarely exhibit emotion when disclosing, but they may be able to describe their subjective reactions to abuse if asked.Objective: This study examined the extent to which different types of questions in child sexual abuse interviews elicited subjective...