ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

Each year hundreds of thousands of children in Korea become entangled in the legal system. Some are invoked in custody and visitation disputes in courts, others are summoned to turn out in juvenile justice proceedings, and still others become involved in criminal cases. Often these children testify about alleged actions of offender when this happened. The case is often decided on the basis of the relative credibility of the child versus the defendant. Regardless of whether such testimony is made in forensic interviews, during preliminary hearings or at trial, it may result life altering decisions for all involved. Therefore, it is imperative that we better understand the factors, both beneficial and baleful, that influence children's testimony. in this article, I attempted to describe the complexity of evaluating the accuracy of children's eyewitness and to explain the importance of using the investigative methods in children's statements. As the dispute around the credibility of children's testimony, particularly in sexual abuse cases has been doing, some of researches are used to illustrate the potential for error and misinterpretation when scientific knowledge and common sense are banished from the forensic area. Thus, I focused on disputed points of the science research to sexual abused children's witness. Although there are some obvious parallels between laboratory studies of children's memories of unusual or surprising vents and the ability of child witnesses to accurately recall the details of a witnesses theft or accident, it is not clear how the results of these studies assist in understanding children's allegations of sexual abuse. Thus it is important to be focused on getting more general issues regarding sexually abused children's witness. It is difficult for children to reveal the details of their victimization, special techniques must be used to elicit them, such as leading question, fantasy play, nonverbal props, and various forms of guided imagery. When children subjected to such techniques eventually disclose the details of their abuse, we must believe them because children do not generate false reports of their own sexual victimization. On the other side would have us believe that young children are more vulnerable erroneous suggestions and leading questions than are older children and adults, we should always greet their disclosures of abuse with a large dose of skepticism. Child witnesses are depicted by this side as helpless sponges who soak up the interviewers' suggestions and regurgitate in court. Are children considered to be "person" in Korea? Many researcher have argued throughout that children's reporting accuracy can be influenced by a number of different interviewing techniques. In near future I hope for the sake of the children who testify accurately because they can be very convincing.