PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH OF WITNESS AND JUDICIAL TESTIMONY

Gender and the experience of mental health expert witness testimony.

Mental health expert witness testimony involves complex tasks, and the capacity to perform under pressure is a fundamental skill of a forensic professional. In this context, it is important to understand the nuances of the provision of expert witness testimony. There have been several efforts to examine gender bias across legal and medical systems. Despite these reviews, little is known about h...

Prosecutorial Use of Expert Witness Testimony in Sexual Assault Cases

Recent Home Office research indicates that complainants in sexual offence cases still struggle to gain credibility in the eyes of police, prosecutors and jurors. This article examines some of the credibility barriers confronting victims of sexual offences within the criminal process. In the USA, prosecutors have utilised expert witness testimony in an effort to educate jurors and restore credib...

Harnessing the Science of Persuasion for Expert Witness Testimony

Admissibility of expert psychological and psychiatric testimony

18.1.1 Expert testimony: background The purpose of civil and criminal trials is to decide issues of fact and of law. In England, Wales and Scotland, issues of fact in the most serious criminal trials are decided by juries and issues of law by judges. For several centuries, decisions about issues of fact, in certain cases, have been assisted by experts. As early as 1554, Saunders J remarked in t...

Sexual assault nurse examiners' experiences providing expert witness court testimony.

Nurses from a national random sample of SANE programs were interviewed about their most recent experience providing expert witness court testimony (N = 110). Forty-three percent of the SANEs characterized this experience "fine" with no difficulties, but 58% mentioned that they had encountered problems. Challenges they faced while testifying are explored in depth and implications for forensic nu...