Children’s eyewitness testimony can be as accurate as adults’ or more so – if interviewers follow these guidelines
Eyewitness memory has come under a lot of scrutiny in recent years, as organizations such as the Innocence Project suggest it was a key piece of information in as many as 75% of wrongful convictions in the United States. Unfortunately, human memory doesn’t work like a video camera recording a scene, allowing you to play memories back exactly as they happened. Instead, memories must be reconstructed every time they are used, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. All kinds of things can influence this reconstruction process, ranging from new information you learn after the event to simply the passage of time.
Adults are bad enough at providing accurate testimony, because of issues related to the reconstructive nature of memory as well as the ways memories can be influenced by new information and decay over time. Considering these limitations of human memory, how well do kids do? The reliability of child witnesses is especially important to understand given the large number of children who become involved in the legal system every year. In cases involving child witnesses, the child’s testimony is often the only available evidence, so gaining reliable accounts may be the only way to keep dangerous offenders off the streets.
Research shows that children can be reliable witnesses, but it depends on both the individual child and the situation.
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