Black Hills State University, Spearfish, South Dakota, USA.
Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina, USA.
J Child Sex Abus. 2022 Aug-Sep;31(6):726-742. doi: 10.1080/10538712.2022.2100027. Epub 2022 Jul 14.
Child sexual abuse (CSA) remains a significant societal problem; however, few CSA cases are actually brought to trial. The cases that do proceed to trial typically involve little evidence, therefore, it is imperative that legal professionals become more aware of possible factors that may contribute to jurors' perceptions of child complainants and in turn influence their case decisions. The goal of this study was to investigate the influence of jury instructions, child complainant age, child's level of sexual knowledge, and preexisting beliefs about CSA on mock jurors' child credibility ratings. Participants ( = 388) evaluated a mock CSA trial transcript and answered questions related to the child's credibility. Results indicated that child credibility was dependent on mock jurors' knowledge about CSA, which in turn, differed by mock juror gender. Pre-evidence jury instructions also influenced mock jurors' CSA misconception endorsements. Child sexual knowledge level did not influence credibility, nor did it interact with child age. Our study suggests that specialized pre-evidence jury instructions may educate legal fact finders about alleged CSA victims and in turn may enhance their views of children in this specific legal context.
儿童性虐待（CSA）仍然是一个严重的社会问题；然而，实际上只有少数 CSA 案件被提交审判。进入审判程序的案件通常证据很少，因此，法律专业人士必须更加意识到可能导致陪审员对儿童投诉人产生看法的因素，并进而影响他们的案件决定。本研究的目的是调查陪审团指示、儿童投诉人年龄、儿童性知识水平以及对 CSA 的预先存在的信念对模拟陪审员对儿童可信度的评定的影响。参与者（=388）评估了一份模拟 CSA 审判记录，并回答了与儿童可信度相关的问题。结果表明，儿童可信度取决于模拟陪审员对 CSA 的了解程度，而模拟陪审员的性别又决定了他们对 CSA 的了解程度。预先存在的证据陪审团指示也影响了模拟陪审员对 CSA 的误解认可。儿童性知识水平既不影响可信度，也不与儿童年龄相互作用。我们的研究表明，专门的预先证据陪审团指示可以使法律事实调查者了解涉嫌 CSA 受害者的情况，从而可能增强他们在这一特定法律背景下对儿童的看法。
