Matching Items (9)
Description
When children allege sexual abuse, there is rarely medical evidence or eyewitnesses, making their testimony in trial a primary factor in assessing their credibility. However, little is known about what may be unclear to jury members making verdict decisions. In some districts, jury members are allowed to ask questions of the child witness at the end of their testimony. The current study utilizes a sample of trial transcripts from Maricopa County, Arizona where children ages 5-17 years old have alleged some form of sexual abuse; a jurisdiction where jury members are permitted to ask written questions. Cases were analyzed to assess: 1) if jury questions were asked and how often these questions occurred, 2) what content they asked about, and 3) whether occurrence or frequency of jury questions related to case characteristics (i.e. child age, child-perpetrator relationship, severity of abuse, frequency of abuse). It was hypothesized that 1) juries would ask questions mostly about the dynamics of abuse and disclosure, 2) these questions would primarily clarify information previously discussed by attorneys during direct- and cross-examination (instead of asking new inquiries that went undiscussed during testimony), 3) there would be more jury questions as child age increases and 4) more serious cases (based on case characteristics) would have more jury questions. Results were mixed. Jury members often asked about the dynamics of abuse and disclosure (abuse details, statements regarding abuse, the child’s subjective reactions), but case characteristics of child age, child-perpetrator relationship, and severity of abuse did not have a relationship with the presence of jury questions. However, cases where children alleged multiple instances of abuse were more likely to receive jury questions, which may allude to the misconception that children would disclose abuse right away and not let multiple instances occur. Although the sample size is small for generalization, it is an important first step for future research to further examine jury questions, improve attorney questioning techniques, and better educate the general public about the dynamics of child sexual abuse cases.
ContributorsGarcia-Johnson, Anastacia M (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia N. (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Kathleen A. (Committee member) / Chamberlain, Alyssa W. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Legal narratives obtained from forensic interviews of twenty sexually abused children were analyzed concerning gender differences in disclosure patterns and narrative elaboration. Quantitative analysis of the children's disclosure of sexual abuse revealed that boys made prompted disclosures to caretakers, primarily mothers. Girls more often made purposeful disclosures, and revealed the abuse to caretakers as well as other supportive individuals. Quantitative analysis of the children's forensic interviews revealed that girls provided more coherent, elaborate, structured, and contextually detailed narratives than boys did. Children's accounts of their disclosures were qualitatively analyzed. Results indicated that fear was the primary reason children delayed abuse disclosure. Qualitative analysis also found that the children's narratives revealed several common themes including themes of force and resistance. Implications for legal interventions on behalf of children and the effectiveness of abuse prevention programs were discussed.
ContributorsDutton, Wendy Allison, 1960- (Author) / Adelman, Madelaine (Thesis advisor) / Durfee, Alesha (Committee member) / Krysik, Judy (Committee member) / Roe-Sepowitz, Dominique (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Most of the existing literature on how alleged sexual offenders interact with children is based on the perspectives of offenders themselves. Few studies have explored children's accounts of their relationship with their perpetrator before the abuse and/or disclosure. To address this gap, the current study investigated children’s reported first and later impressions of their alleged sexual perpetrators. Using qualitative content coding, we examined 34 transcripts of forensic interviews relating to child sexual abuse and categorized the impressions into three main types: positive, neutral, and negative. A majority of the first impressions were positive or neutral while most of the later impressions were negative. Impressions were complex and varied widely within a single category. Analyzing children’s rationale for their first impressions can provide insight into their thought processes as well as allow for an analysis of the perpetrator behavior. The examination of first and later impressions can be a crucial variable for practitioners and scholars to study, as it can quickly assess the evolution of the child-offender relationship and elicit information about perpetrator tactics such as grooming and seduction.
ContributorsTran, Sydney (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis director) / Lawler, Siobhan (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of Human Evolution & Social Change (Contributor)
Created2023-05
Description
Child sexual abuse is common in the United States, with an estimated 27% of girls and 5% of boys reporting experiencing child sexual abuse before the age of 18. Occurrences of sexual abuse are grossly underreported, if at all. Recently, researchers have looked more closely at children’s disclosure of sexual abuse and best practices to optimize the safety and well-being of the child. Identifying and acknowledging the reasons that encourage or discourage child sexual abuse disclosures can help victims disclose sooner, access treatment sooner, prevent additional sexual victimization, and safeguard others from harm. Although research exists on the forensic interview process for reporting child sexual abuse, this dissertation takes a unique approach to study children’s decisions to disclose sexual abuse during investigative interviews. Paper 1 aimed to systematically identify and describe the types of preparatory statements caregivers provided to children before forensic interviews. Paper 2 examined the association between caregivers’ preparatory statements and other factors that may impact disclosure rates. Paper 3 provided and encouraged the widespread adoption of an integrated, feminist-based ecological systems framework that guided this dissertation study from conceptualization to interpretive analysis. A Child Advocacy Center provided 322 child sexual abuse forensic interviews and intake paperwork from children and their caregivers. To meet the inclusion criteria, children had to be between 4 and 17 when they reported being sexually abused, possess language proficiency, and take part in forensic interviews regarding sexual abuse conducted by forensic interviewers between 2015 and 2018. The first paper used content analysis to explore and categorize the types of preparatory statements caregivers provided to children. The second paper used a stepwise regression analysis that integrated the preparatory statement results from Paper 1 and child characteristics. This dissertation's third paper proposed a conceptual framework using feminist and ecological systems theory to approach child sexual abuse research. The main takeaway from this study is that children were more likely to make a formal disclosure if their caregiver provided transparent preparatory statements before a forensic disclosure.
ContributorsLawler, Siobhan M (Author) / Reed, Lauren A (Thesis advisor) / Stolzenberg, Stacia N (Committee member) / Messing, Jill T (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
In this thesis, the researcher analyzed 100 court transcripts of criminal trial testimony where children (those under 17 years old) alleging sexual abuse identified a first disclosure recipient. This thesis explores how the age and gender of these children were related to who they reported to as their first disclosure recipient. This thesis found that mothers were overwhelmingly the first disclosure recipient, regardless of victim age, in 35.35% of the cases. There was no significant relationship found to suggest that as a victim ages, they are more likely to tell a same-aged peer in adolescence. In addition, there was no relationship found between the victim's age and disclosure to someone of the same gender; however, almost all of the first disclosure recipients were women (79%). A relationship was found between age and disclosure to a parental figure; for every year older a victim was they were 1.147 times more likely to first disclose to a parental figure. These results suggest an increased importance for further study of first disclosure recipients and procedures to decrease dead-end disclosures.
ContributorsMcDermott, Heather (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis director) / Elqadah, Zeina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2023-12
ContributorsMcDermott, Heather (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis director) / Elqadah, Zeina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2023-12
ContributorsMcDermott, Heather (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis director) / Elqadah, Zeina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Contributor)
Created2023-12
Description
Many children who testify to alleged sexual abuse struggle to answer questions about touching, likely because attorneys and children may operate under different definitions of “touch.” However, little is known about how children define touch, and the most productive question type for eliciting reports of touching has yet to be determined. In the present investigation, Study 1 examined (N = 64, 5 - 12 years of age) children’s testimonies to identify the sources of misunderstanding when children report abusive touch in court. In light of the language difficulties observed in Study 1, specifically, that attorneys and children appeared to be operating under different definitions of touch, a laboratory study (Study 2) was conducted to examine (N = 95, 4 - 7 years of age) children’s definition of touch, and how children reported touching in response to open-ended wh- questions, compared to close-ended yes
o questions. Body contact (i.e., manual and non-manual touch, compared to touching with an object) was most closely representative of children’s definition of touch. Additionally, children reported touch more often, and provided more informative reports of touch, in response to wh- questions, compared to yes
o questions. These findings demonstrated that children’s definition of touch exists on a scale, and through asking specific, open-ended wh- questions attorneys can elicit reports of touching from children even when definitional discrepancies are present.
o questions. Body contact (i.e., manual and non-manual touch, compared to touching with an object) was most closely representative of children’s definition of touch. Additionally, children reported touch more often, and provided more informative reports of touch, in response to wh- questions, compared to yes
o questions. These findings demonstrated that children’s definition of touch exists on a scale, and through asking specific, open-ended wh- questions attorneys can elicit reports of touching from children even when definitional discrepancies are present.
ContributorsSullivan, Colleen (Author) / Stolzenberg Roosevelt, Stacia N. (Thesis advisor) / Spohn, Cassia (Committee member) / Fabricius, William (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
When questioning children during courtroom testimony, attorneys are instructed to use questions that are short and simple to address children’s cognitive abilities; however, this typically leads to anaphora. Anaphora occurs when a word is substituted for a previously mentioned word, phrase, or concept. For example, the pronoun “he” in “Bill is moving to New York. He is very excited.” indicates an anaphora since the word “he” replaces the name Bill. When asked a question that includes a pronoun-specific anaphora, the respondent must use cognitive skills to refer back to the initial referent. This likely means that as the number of conversational turns between the initial referent and the end of the reference increases, there will be more probable miscommunications between children and attorneys in cases of alleged Child Sexual Abuse (CSA). In this thesis, I analyzed 40 testimonies from cases of alleged child sexual abuse (5-10 years old, 90% female), located attorney use of pronoun anaphora, backward reference distances, and identified probable misunderstandings. I identified 137 probable misunderstandings within 2,940 question-answer pairs that included pronoun anaphora. Attorneys averaged 4.1 questions before clarifying the referent (SD = 10.14), sometimes extending up to 146 lines, leading to considerable backwards referencing. The distance between the anaphora and referent had a significant effect on misunderstandings, where each additional Q-A pair made misunderstandings more likely to occur. To reduce misunderstanding, attorneys should avoid pronoun anaphora of excessive length that require children to backward reference.
ContributorsRuiz-Earle, Ciara Aisling (Author) / Stolzenberg, Stacia (Thesis advisor) / Fine, Adam (Committee member) / Yan, Shi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023