Evans and Lyon (2012) - created from Mind Map

Assessing children's competency to Take the Oath in Court

Examined children's accuracy in response to T/L competency questions Participants Results 164 from criminal child sex abuse cases over 5 years 154 quoted in U.S state and federal appelate cases over 35 yrs. Judges virtually never found children incompetent to testify Children exhibited variability in performance based on question type Attorneys rarely asked hypothetical Q's in a way found to facilitate performance. T/L competency is underestimated by courtroom Q'ing Definition questions - meaning of T&L hardest - Errors in response to 'Do you know' Q's Q's about consequences of lying harder than Q's evaluating morality or lying. High rates of error to Q's about whether they had ever told a lie. Defence attorneys used a higher proportion of more difficult Q types than prosecutors Supports doubts about the utility of the competency requirements

Evans and Lyon (2012)