Innovations for child witnesses - A national survey

Numerous innovative procedural reforms have been proposed concerning child victims involved in legal cases. In this study, 153 district attorney offic es nationwide were surveyed about their use of innovations, their perceptio ns of the innovations' effectiveness, reasons why they opt not to utilize i nnovations, and defense strategies used with child witnesses. Prosecutors w ere also asked about the type of cases they encountered in which children t estified. Prosecutors reported mainly using inexpensive, easy-to-implement innovations, which were also typically rated as helpful in reducing childre n's trauma and enhancing guilty outcomes. Prosecutors reported rarely using expert witnesses and innovations that altered how children were interviewe d or how they testified. The most common types of cases in which children t estified involved sexual abuse. Frequent defense strategies to challenge ch ild credibility concerned suggestibility, inaccurate memory, coaching, and delays in reporting abuse. Results are discussed in relation to the need fo r increased social science research on procedural reforms for child witness es.