Child Witness in Today's Courts

The involvement of children in the legal system as witnesses has increased dra-matically in the recent past, mainly as a result of society's heightened awareness of the problem of sexual and physical abuse and the subsequent removal of several legal impediments to children's testimony. The increased interaction between children and the legal system helped to create research interest in the area of children's eyewitness capabilities. Several sensational cases in the 1980s and 1990s in which children were interviewed with highly suggestive tactics, thus compromising their credibility, raised concerns about children's suggestibility and ability to provide accurate testimony. Compared to earlier turn-of-the-century studies on children's eyewitness ability, more recent studies, especially studies conducted in the last decade, rep-resent several advances in research methodology. These studies have identified both strengths and weaknesses in children's eyewitness testimony.