Gould School of Law, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Albany Medical College, Albany, NY, USA.
Child Maltreat. 2023 Aug;28(3):438-449. doi: 10.1177/10775595231161033. Epub 2023 Mar 5.
Eliciting clear descriptions of sexual body parts and abusive touch in child sexual abuse trials is challenging because of children's immaturity and embarrassment. This study examined references to sexual body part knowledge and sexual touch in attorneys' questions and 5- to 10-year-old children's responses ( = 2,247) in 113 child sexual abuse trials. Regardless of children's age, attorneys and children primarily used unclear colloquialisms to refer to sexual body parts. Questions asking children to name sexual body parts elicited more uninformative responses than questions about the function of sexual body parts. In turn, questions about the function of sexual body parts were more likely to increase the specificity of body part identifications than questions about the location of sexual body parts. Attorneys predominantly used option-posing (yes-no and forced choice) questions to ask about sexual body part knowledge, the location of touch, the method or manner of touching, skin-to-skin contact, penetration, and how the touching felt. Generally, wh- questions were no more likely than option-posing questions to elicit uninformative responses, and consistently elicited more child-generated information. The results question the legal assumption that children's uninformative responses when testifying about sexual abuse should be overcome by asking option-posing questions.
在儿童性虐待案件的审判中，由于儿童的不成熟和尴尬，很难清晰地描述性身体部位和虐待性触摸。本研究考察了律师在询问中提到的性身体部位知识和性触摸，以及 5 至 10 岁儿童的回答（=2247）在 113 起儿童性虐待案件审判中。无论儿童的年龄大小，律师和儿童主要使用不明确的俗语来指代性身体部位。询问儿童说出性身体部位名称的问题比询问性身体部位功能的问题引出的无信息回答更多。反过来，询问性身体部位功能的问题比询问性身体部位位置的问题更有可能增加身体部位识别的特异性。律师主要使用选项提问（是/否和强制选择）来询问性身体部位知识、触摸的位置、触摸的方法或方式、皮肤接触、穿透以及触摸的感觉。一般来说，wh-问题并不比选项提问更有可能引出无信息回答，而且总是引出更多的儿童生成信息。研究结果对法律假设提出了质疑，即当儿童在性虐待案件中作证时，如果他们的回答没有信息，那么通过询问选项问题就可以克服。
