Child Maltreatment and Long-Term Memory

司法系统调查的一些最严重的罪行涉及成年人对童年创伤经历的记忆。允许成年人对儿童受害行为提起刑事和民事诉讼的法律，提高了科学和法律上对目击者指认几十年前发生的行为的参与者的兴趣。本研究将有助于指导早期创伤成人识别童年经历过的法律相关行为的肇事者的理论和应用。司法系统将受益于以科学为基础的技术的发展，以更好地确保长时间延误后目击者身份的准确性。这项研究还将帮助司法部门，在受害者被要求指认童年时期的犯罪者的案件中，为技术的有效性提供指导。本研究考察了是否可以通过将基于科学的技术纳入广泛使用的基于科学的访谈协议（称为认知访谈）来最大限度地减少错误识别。本研究的目的是探讨：(a)具有心理和情境恢复的认知访谈对有童年创伤史的成年人目击证人识别的影响；(b)儿童时期事先访谈和排列对成人长期识别记忆的影响与没有事先访谈或排列的影响；(c)延迟20年后照片识别准确性的个体差异预测因子。这项研究得益于对大量受害儿童样本的前瞻性纵向研究。研究人员将收集这些参与者在儿童时期（时间1）早期评估的第二波数据（时间2）。参与者正确识别时间1个人的能力将在时间2进行评估，同时评估参与者对身份识别的信心。将分析在时间1和时间2测量的个体差异，以确定准确性的预测因子。这个创新的项目提供了非常需要的纵向信息，目击证人的记忆在成人历史的童年创伤。

Some of the most serious crimes investigated by the legal system involve adults' memories of traumatic childhood experiences. Laws that permit adults to initiate criminal and civil actions about childhood victimization have raised scientific and legal interest in eyewitness identification of persons involved in acts that occurred decades ago. The present study will help guide theory and application when adults exposed to early trauma are asked to identify perpetrators of legally relevant actions experienced in childhood. The justice system will profit from development of scientifically based techniques to better ensure the accuracy of eyewitness identifications after long delays. The study will also aid the judiciary by providing guidance about the validity of techniques in cases where victims are asked to identify perpetrators from childhood.This research examines whether false identifications can be minimized through scientifically based techniques incorporated into a widely used, science-based interview protocol, called the Cognitive Interview. The research goals are to examine: (a) effects of the Cognitive Interview with mental and context reinstatement on eyewitness identification in adults who have documented histories of childhood trauma; (b) effects of prior interviews and lineups in childhood versus no initial interviews or lineups on adults' long-term recognition memory; and (c) individual-difference predictors of photo identification accuracy after a 20 year delay. The research benefits from a prospective-longitudinal study of a large sample of child victims. Researchers will collect a second wave of data (Time 2) on these participants assessed earlier as children (Time 1). Participants' abilities to correctly identify Time 1 individuals will be assessed at Time 2 along with the participants' confidence of the identifications. Individual differences measured at Time 1 and 2 will be analyzed to determine predictors of accuracy. This innovative project provides much needed longitudinal information on eyewitness memory in adults with histories of childhood trauma.