“The Child Needs to Tell it to Me in Words”

Abstract

Much research on child witnesses in child sexual abuse trials is focused on children’s performance in legal proceedings. Witness competency, that is predicated on the adversarial justice system’s principle of orality, is core to child witness testimony, and is determined at the pre-trial stage. However, this article highlights the need to consider child witness competency as a dynamic concept, that varies in response to the ecologies of the trial processes as they unfold. Set in a low-middle-income country, this qualitative study describes and analyzes trial processes through a child-inclusive lens, identifying barriers and facilitators to child witness competency. The results were mixed, yielding three major conclusions for consideration: (i) the importance attributed to physical infrastructure, and the creation of vulnerable deposition rooms; (ii) the role of judicial discretion in issues of child witness competency and (iii) role of intermediaries, with regard to enhancing child witness competencies.