Child Psychology Affecting Interviews of Child Victims and Witnesses in Criminal Cases
Abstract
In criminal cases, one of the challenges in the fact-finding process of children is usually involved with cognitive and intellectual development, and trauma of children and juvenile. In general, most children aged over 2-3 years start to have the ability to speak, listen, understand, make responsive communications with people surrounding them. This may cause ordinary persons, especially untrained officials, public prosecutors, or lawyers or the government authorities whose responsibilities are to conduct child interviews often assume that, providing that a legally competent child has cognitive, verbal, or physical abilities similar to those of an adult, the steps and process of interviewing those children or juveniles should also be similar to those of adults. Only until 50-60 years ago, it was found that children are not just small adults. As such, this academic article, through documentary research, is aimed to provide a study on child psychology including children’s cognitive and intellectual abilities and trauma which may affect interviews of child victims and witnesses in criminal cases. This is so that relevant officials can adopt a child-centered approach to the interviews and choose developmentally and age-appropriate questions in order to enhance the effectiveness of fact-finding process among child victims and witnesses in criminal cases.
Keywords: child psychology, child interview, forensic interview, child victims and witnesses, criminal cases
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