Sexually abused children: Credibility assessment of their testimonies

Abstract

Frequently members of the legal system Clawyers, judges, policemen, social «workers...) reject a child'stestimony believing children are cognitively incompetent and incapable of sincere testimony. Thus, they are rejected as witnesses in court. The first aim of this paper was to discuss what is erroneous in both conceptions and how children's testimoniés (and specially those of victims of sexual abuse) can and should be admitted in court.The second objective was to present the Statement Reality Analysis as a method that can be used in the assessment of child sexual abuse' victims credibility. Finally, some aspects of the participation of children in trials and how to attenuate «he stressing factors that testimony presentation entails are discussed.