Child hearsay statutes - At once over-inclusive and under-inclusive

Special child hearsay statutes allow for the admissibility of demonstrably reliable but. otherwise inadmissible children's hearsay. These statutes wer e among other child witness innovations that proliferated in the 1980s and 1990s to redress the proof problems that arise in child sexual abuse prosec utions. The author argues that the special child hearsay statutes are at on ce over-inclusive and under-inclusive: over-inclusive in that child sexual abuse prosecutions typically include the testimony of the child witness and multiple hearsay witnesses; and under-inclusive in that they allow for the admissibility of children's hearsay in child abuse cases but may require t he child declarant to be the child victim, excluding the hearsay statements of other child witnesses, and typically do not apply to the hearsay statem ents of children who witness crimes other than child abuse, like domestic v iolence. She proposes reforms to remedy these deficiencies in the special c hild hearsay statutes.