Why Do Children Testify In Court

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This week’s topic was about child testimony and if “Children should be obligated to testify in court if they are involved in a trial (e.g., as victims or witnesses).” On Monday when we had to take a stand I said that I somewhat agree. One of the strong arguments on why I think children should be able to testify in court is because I think that they should be able to do so just like how adults do. Children should have the right to confront the person that is being accused. The reason why is because the child could possibly have some information that might help the court put the perpetrator in prison. However, one of the weak arguments is that children are more honest than adults. I agree that this can be true, but to some extent. The reason why is because kids don’t think about what they’re saying or what they are about to say. …show more content…
It has been proven that the memory in young children under the age of 5 is not the best. During this time, children tend to imagine a lot. Imagination is a good thing for children because it helps their cognitive development. However, it may not be the best thing when it comes to testifying because they have difficulty distinguishing imagined from real events. Also, children don’t really have the ability to encode, store, and retrieve information because their brain is not yet fully developed which will more than likely cause their memory to be inaccurate. Nonetheless, one of the weak arguments why they shouldn’t be able to testify is because of their safety concerns. There might be some consequences for the child such as relieving trauma and facing the alleged abuser, but they have One-way and two-way CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) which is a video system that transmits a video camera to specific television monitors. This will help prevent the child from having to face the perpetrator in