Evans and Lyon (2012) - created from Mind Map

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Assessing children's competency to Take the Oath in Court

Examined children's accuracy in response to T/L competency questions

Participants

Results

164 from criminal child sex abuse cases over 5 years

154 quoted in U.S state and federal appelate cases over 35 yrs.

Judges virtually never found children incompetent to testify

Children exhibited variability in performance based on question type

Attorneys rarely asked hypothetical Q's in a way found to facilitate performance.

T/L competency is underestimated by courtroom Q'ing

Definition questions - meaning of T&L hardest - Errors in response to 'Do you know' Q's

Q's about consequences of lying harder than Q's evaluating morality or lying.

High rates of error to Q's about whether they had ever told a lie.

Defence attorneys used a higher proportion of more difficult Q types than prosecutors

Supports doubts about the utility of the competency requirements

Evans and Lyon (2012)