Children are important witnesses in our judicial system which relies, in part, on their ability to correctly identify criminals. Researchers reviewed the current literature to explore the similarities and differences between adult and child witness identification performance using meta-analytical techniques. They found that generally children over the age of 5 and adolescents were just as likely as adults to correctly identify people. Preschoolers were less likely than adults to correctly identify people.
As a witness, it is just as important to correctly reject people. Children and adolescents were less likely to make correct rejection as compared to adults. if an adult has trouble correctly rejecting people, showing photos one at a time, one after the other helps the adult. When that technique is used with children, however the child's accuracy does not increase. Providing child witnesses with extra training or practice also did not increase their correct rejection rate.
Some reasons why children don't perform as well may be that asking them to identify people increases the pressure on them and then alters their performance. Children's memory of faces may be weaker and they may then make a selection based on a weaker match.
One of the most interesting facts was that children under the age of 10 remember faces by focusing on features; adults remember faces by looking at how the features relate to one another in space. Correctly identifying people may be done while looking at features but the witness may need to remember how the features are arranged in space to correctly reject people if the criminal Isn't right in front of them.
Historically, children have been viewed as inferior witnesses and only since the late 1970's has there been more research on children's memory and testimonial competence. This article is an important work since it adds clarity to the field of children's testimonial competence, which has many conflicting studies.
Regarding preschoolers and children, this paper noted that there is not as much research on this age group and asked that this be taken into consideration. The authors must be applauded for further analyzing the current data to generate conclusions to increase our understanding of children's ability to identify criminals.
Pozzulo, J.D. & Lindsay, R..C. L. Identification accuracy of children versus adults: a meta-analysis. Law and Human Behavior. Vol.22, No.5,549-570, (1998).
Children's Ability to Witness
- Able to correctly identify
- Limited in correctly rejecting
- Practice does not improve correct rejection
- Remember by focusing
