Clinical Assessment of Malingering and Deception

On June 14th 2007 a Court of First Instance decision changes the custody of a child and grants it to her father on the grounds that her mother was causing her parental alienation syndrome (PAS). The decision, now pending on the Appellate Court admits that there were sufficient reasons to modify the custody regime, as the mother had repeatedly breached the visitation rights of the father. However, the judge also introduced the PAS as a reason for the change in custody claiming that it was the only measure that would help the child overcome the hatred towards her father. The decision caused a big impact on the media for its uniqueness, but also because the mother denied compliance until the Appellate Court settled the case.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=1371431

Parental Alienation Syndrome

The psychology of deception

Juvenile Delinquency: Understanding the Origins of Individual Differences

Although juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) are a pressing topic among researchers and juvenile justice practitioners, empirically driven typologies of JSOs using U.S. data are lacking. Here, we develop...

From Criminological Heterogeneity to Coherent Classes: Developing a Typology of Juvenile Sex Offenders

AIM To investigate the influence of various factors on the ability of primary school children (aged 6-9 years) to refer an event that occurred during their life. MATERIALS AND METHODS The factors analyzed were: the time since the event occurred; the role the child had in the event; the type of questions asked to elicit the account. RESULTS The results of this research indicate that 52.4% of 6-year old children are able to describe the main elements of the event if they are allowed to give a free account. Asking direct questions does not improve the quality of the narrative. By contrast, in 9-year-old children the quantity of data collected is improved if direct questions are asked. A role as a participant in the event improves the quality of the child's evidence but only in the group of children aged 9, whereas in younger children the difference is not significant. At the age of 9, the child's resistance to leading questions is already quite good (40.7%), whereas children of 6 are much more suggestible. CONCLUSIONS The Authors conclude this work by making some reflections on the possible use of these findings in Law Courts, and on the need for a highly specific training of experts involved in the task of collecting evidence from young children.

Andrea Lisi

Papers

Child witnesses: a study of memory and suggestibility.