Child Abuse and the Law - The Child's Story

Some experts believe children do not lie about abuse. They point out that children cannot describe events unfamiliar to them. For example, the average six-year-old has no concept of how forced penetration feels or how semen tastes. Experts also note that children lie to get themselves out of trouble, not into trouble, and reporting sexual abuse is definitely trouble. Children sometimes recant, or deny that any abuse has happened, after they have disclosed it. Perhaps the reaction to the disclosure was unfavorable, or the pain and fear of talking about the experience were too great. The child's recanting under interrogation in a court of law may prove damaging to the case and may encourage claims that the child has made false accusations.

Not a Lie but Not the Truth Either

Kenneth V. Lanning, a supervisory special agent at the Behavioral Science Unit at the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Academy, Quantico, Virginia, claimed that children rarely lie about sexual abuse ("Criminal Investigation of Sexual Victimization of Children," The APSAC Handbook on Child Maltreatment, 2nd ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 2002). Some children, however, may recount what they believe in their minds to be the truth, although their accounts may turn out to be inaccurate. Lanning gave the following explanations for these inaccuracies:

• The child may be experiencing distorted memory due to trauma.
• The child's story might be a reflection of normal childhood fears and fantasy.
• The child may have been confused by the abuser's use of trickery or drugs.
• The child's testimony may be influenced by the suggestive questions of investigators.
• The child's account might reflect urban legends and cultural mythology.

The Pressure of the Judicial System

Once the child becomes enmeshed in the courts, his or her testimony may become muddled. Children, by definition, are immature in their physical, reasoning, and emotional development. Therapists who believe children do not invent abuse feel that if a child's story changes, then psychological progress is being made because the child is dealing with the emotional trauma. For the courts, however, changing stories raise doubts.

Often, the goals of the therapist and the judicial system are at odds. The therapist's goal is to protect the best interests of the child. If, to encourage the child to speak out, a therapist asks leading questions (questions that suggest a specific answer—"Did daddy take his clothes off?"—rather than, "What did daddy look like? What was he wearing?"), the purpose is to help the child remember painful events that need to be expressed. The courts, however, look at such questions as leading the witness. Cases have fallen apart when it appeared that therapists put words in the children's mouths. Critics charge that an alleged abuse may go to trial because an overzealous therapist or investigator has implanted the occurrence of abuse into the child's impressionable mind.

By the time a case makes it to the courtroom, most children are under a great deal of stress. Many will have undergone a thorough genital/rectal examination by a physician and relentless interrogations by innumerable strangers. A child may have been interviewed many times by therapists, lawyers, the police, CPS workers, and the parents. Some of these people may have experience with sexual abuse cases; many may not, and their goals will be very different. How can a child possibly handle all this? Nonetheless, the U.S. legal system demands this process in order to give every accused person a fair trial and a chance to be cleared of the charges.

Sexual abuse cases are different from most trials in that the question is not just who did it, but did it actually happen? In cases where there is frequently no physical evidence of the crime, it is crucial for the jury to hear the children testify. Many people, however, feel that children are not able to present credible evidence to a jury. Testimony by others, such as the parents, is often excluded by hearsay rules (rules that prevent a witness from repeating in court those statements someone else has made about the case).