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The believability of hearsay testimony in a child sexual assault trial.

Author
Abstract
:

Two experiments investigated how mock jurors react to hearsay testimony in a case involving child sexual assault. Participants read fictional criminal trial summary involving the sexual assault of a 4-(Experiment 2 only), 6-, or 14-year old female. The summaries were presented in one of four conditions: (a) child condition--the alleged victim testified; (b) hearsay condition--the alleged victim did not testify, but an adult hearsay witness did testify; (c) multiple condition (Experiment 1 only)--both the alleged victim and the adult hearsay witness testified; and (d) no-witness condition--neither the alleged victim nor the hearsay witness testified. The hearsay testimony was believed to a considerable degree, and this testimony led to an increase in the perceived guilt of the defendant. Moreover, these results were comparable to those of conditions in which the alleged victim testified. The results are discussed in terms of the psychosocial factors affecting the perception of hearsay testimony in a child sexual assault trial.

Year of Publication
:
1997
Journal
:
Law and human behavior
Volume
:
21
Issue
:
3
Number of Pages
:
299-325
ISSN Number
:
0147-7307
DOI
:
10.1023/a:1024842816130
Short Title
:
Law Hum Behav
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