Creating a safe courtroom environment for Sexual Abuse victims called upon to testify against their assailants

Here are some articles, books and chapters that may be helpful:

Note: the following references are provided for educational and informational purposes only. The views expressed in a specific article are those of the author or authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Leadership Council.

Bala, N. (1992). More sensitivity to child witnesses. Criminal Reports,13(4), 270-273.

Bauer, H. (1983). Preparation of the sexually abused child for court testimony. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry & the Law, 11(3) 287-289.

Ceci, S. J., & Bruck, M. (1995). Jeopardy in the courtroom: A scientific analysis of children's testimony. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

Copens, Lynn . (2000). Preparing Children for Court, a Practitioner's Guide. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA .

Cunningham, A., & Hurley, P. (1987). A Full and Candid Account: Using Special Accommodations and Testimonial Aids to Facilitate the Testimony of Children. (article in booklet published by the Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System).

Goodman, G. S., Quas, J. A., Bulkley, J., & Shapiro, C. (1999). Innovations for child witnesses: A national survey. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 5, 255-281.

Goodman, G. S., Taub, E. P., Jones, D. H. P., England, P., Port, L. K., Rudy, L., et al. (1992). Testifying in criminal court: Emotional effects on child sexual assault victims. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 57(5).

Hurley, P., Scarth, K., & Stevens, L. Children as Witnesses: Helping Young People Give Their Evidence in Court, Helping Courts Hear the Evidence of Children: Manual for Child Witness Court Preparation. Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System.

Jaffe, P., Wilson, S. K., & Sas, L. (1987). Court testimony of child sexual abuse victims: Emerging issues in clinical assessments. Canadian Psychology, 28(3), 291-295.

Lipovsky, J. & Stern, P. (1997). Preparing children for court: An interdisciplinary view. Child Maltreatment, 2(1), 150-163.

London , K., Bruck, M., Ceci, S. J., & Shuman, D. W. (2005). Disclosure of child sexual abuse: What does the research tell us about the ways that children tell? Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 11(1), 194-226.

McGough, L. (1994). Fragile voices in the American legal system . Binghamton, New York: Vail-Ballou Press.

Morgan, J. & Williams, J. (1993). A role for a support person for child witnesses in criminal proceedings, British Journal of Social Work, 23 (2), 113-21.

Oregon Department of Justice. (2004). Oregon Interviewing Guidelines. <http://www.doj.state.or.us/crimev/pdf/orinterviewingguide.pdf> Guidelines for interviewing children for criminal investigation.

Peters, W. W., & Nunez, N. (1999). Complex language and comprehension monitoring: Teaching child witnesses to recognize linguistic confusion. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84(5), 661-669.

Powell, M. A., & Lancaster, S. (2003). Guidelines for interviewing children during child custody evaluations. Australian Psychologist, 38(1), 46-54.

Quas, J. B., Goodman, G. S., Ghetti, S., Alexander, K. W., Edelstein, R., Redlich, A. D., et al. (2005). Childhood sexual assault victims: Long-term outcomes after testifying in criminal court. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 70(2), 1-145.

Saywitz, K.J., & Goodman, G.S. (1996). Interviewing children in and out of court: Current research and practice implications. In J. Briere, L. Berliner, J. A. Bulkley, C. Jenny, & T. Reid (eds.), The APSAC handbook on child maltreatment (pp.217-318), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Saywitz, K. J., Snyder, L., & Nathanson, R. (1999). Facilitating the communicative competence of the child witness. Applied Developmental Science, 3, 58-68.

Stern, P. (1993). Preparing a child for court. Violence Update, 4, 5-11

Weissman, H. (1991). Forensic psychological examination of the child witness in cases of alleged sexual abuse. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61(1), 48-58.

Wescott, H., Davies, G., & Bull, R. (eds.). (2002). Children ' s testimony: A handbook of psychological research and forensic practice. John Wiley, Chichester.

Westment, J. (1991). The protection and reliability of children as witnesses. In Who speaks for the children: The handbook of individual and class child advocacy (pp. 99-111). Sarasota, FL, Professional Resource Exchange, Inc.

Whitcomb, D., Goodman, G. S., Runyan, D., & Hoak, S. (1994). The emotional effects of testifying on sexually abused children. National Institute of Justice: Research in Brief. Office of Justice Programs, US Department of Justice.

Wolfe, V. V., Sas, L., & Wilson, S. K. (1987). Some issues in preparing sexually abused children for courtroom testimony. Behavior Therapist, 10(5) 107-113.