Using item response theory modelling to understand criminal justice professionals' perceptions of cross-examination in child sexual abuse trials
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Goodman-Delahunty, Jane
Martschuk, Natalie
Westera, Nina
Powell, Martine B
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Abstract
The need to educate criminal justice professionals about best practices to cross-examine complainants of child sexual abuse is widely acknowledged. Yet, a dearth of empirical information about their perceptions has hindered development of targeted professional education programmes. The present study compared perceptions of the quality of cross-examination of a child and an adolescent complainant between judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers, police officers and witness support staff. Questioning type (appropriate/inappropriate) and judicial intervention (present/absent) were varied. Results of two-parameter Item Response Theory modelling showed that defence lawyers perceived significantly less unfairness to the complainant than the other professional groups. Judges’ views of unfairness were driven by the potential for confusion more than the age-inappropriate questioning. Police officers and witness support staff more likely rated the cross-examination as deleterious to the credibility and reliability of the complainant. Topics to include in professional development programmes around eliciting best evidence from vulnerable witnesses are discussed.
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Psychiatry, Psychology and Law
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This is an Accepted Manuscript version of the following article, accepted for publication in Psychiatry, Psychology and Law. Eunro Lee, Jane Goodman-Delahunty, Natalie Martschuk, Nina Westera & Martine B. Powell (2023) Using item response theory modelling to understand criminal justice professionals’ perceptions of cross-examination in child sexual abuse trials, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, DOI: 10.1080/13218719.2022.2142974. It is deposited under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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Subject
Criminology
Law in context
Applied and developmental psychology
Child sexual abuse
CREDIBILITY
criminal justice professionals
Criminology & Penology
cross-examination
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Lee, E; Goodman-Delahunty, J; Martschuk, N; Westera, N; Powell, MB, Using item response theory modelling to understand criminal justice professionals' perceptions of cross-examination in child sexual abuse trials, Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 2023