ABSTRACT
An important focus in scientific and legal fields is on children’s and adults’ eyewitness memory and suggestibility about child maltreatment experiences. Eyewitness memory is memory for events (particularly ones of a criminal nature) that people have either experienced as victims or witnessed as bystanders. The term ‘child maltreatment’ refers to caregivers’ mistreatment of children that results in significant harm or potential harm to the children’s well-being. Child maltreatment takes the form of acts of commission (e.g. physical abuse, sexual abuse) and/or omission (e.g. neglect). It is legally defined in each country’s laws. From a legal perspective, failure to provide accurate eyewitness memory about child maltreatment can have serious consequences, such as wrongful conviction, or acquittal of a guilty perpetrator, both of which can leave child victims unprotected. On average, older children recount maltreatment-related events with greater detail and greater accuracy than younger children. However, various factors (e.g. embarrassment, secrecy) can reverse the age trend. Theories and scientific studies indicate that the relation between child maltreatment and memory depends on the nature of the to-be-remembered event. On the one hand, maltreatment experienced in childhood is associated with particularly accurate memory for stressful, personally relevant information; on the other hand, maltreatment is related to impaired memory for emotionally positive or neutral information. Individual-difference (e.g. trauma symptoms) and contextual (e.g. rapport-building) factors also play important roles. When child maltreatment is investigated by authorities, science-based interview protocols can be used to question children. If child victims are required to testify in criminal court, risk factors for psychological harm include having to testify multiple times and hostile cross examination, but with sufficient emotional support, many children can provide important eyewitness evidence and weather the experience without long-term psychological problems.
