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This State Bar of Arizona handout examines testimony about children’s responses and behavior in child sexual abuse cases. It surveys issues including disclosure timing, changing accounts, continued contact, interviewing practices, possible confounds, confirmation bias, and research relevant to evaluating competing explanations.
This resource questions when expert testimony about counterintuitive behavior is needed and presents research on what jurors know about children’s memory, suggestibility, and responses to sexual abuse. It summarizes studies reporting both accurate public understanding and areas of misconception, then discusses how the evidence may inform admissibility debates and the limits of using general research to interpret an individual case.
This resource reviews research on how children’s age and other circumstances relate to whether and when they disclose sexual abuse, while framing the material as topics for evaluating expert testimony. It summarizes qualitative interviews and studies of disclosure timing, including the roles of developmental stage, relationships, abuse characteristics, and barriers to telling, and notes limits such as retrospective reports and sample composition.
