Sexual Assault Trials Handbook — Recording evidence and evidentiary issues in child sexual abuse cases

R Zajac, S O’Neill and H Hayne, “Disorder in the courtroom? Child witnesses under cross-examination” (2012) 32 Developmental Review 181.

There are two main questioning phases in an adversarial criminal trial: direct examination, for which children are sometimes given special provisions, and cross-examination, which research has shown does not conform to the principles that elicit completeness and accuracy of children’s evidence. This paper discusses how children respond to cross-examination questions and the effect of cross-examination on the accuracy of children’s reports.