Children's Testimony

Helen Westcott is a Lecturer in Psychology at The Open University, Milton Keynes, England, UK and is a Chartered Forensic Psychologist. She was formerly Research Officer with the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) in London, and has researched children's eyewitness testimony, and the investigative interviewing of children, for many years. Her other research interests include the abuse of disabled children, the abuse of children and young people in institutional care, and children's perceptions of social work intervention. Helen trains and present regularly on those topics, and to date has published over 30 articles and two books, Perspectives on the Memorandum: Policy, Practice and Research in Investigative Interviewing (1997, edited with Jocelyn Jones) and This Far and No Further: Towards Ending the Abuse of Disabled Children (1996, authored with Merry Cross). She is part of the consortium working with the British Government's Home Office to revise the Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings (1992). Graham Davies is a Professor of Psychology at Leicester University, England, UK. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Chartered Forensic Psychologist. His major research interests lie in the eyewitness testimony of children and adults, on which he has published some 100 papers and five books. Graham is regularly asked to provide training and advice to professionals working with child witnesses. He is currently chairing the consortium working with the British Government's Home Office to revise the Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings (1992). His recent research has included evaluations for the Home Office of the Live Link (1991), videotape facilities for child witnesses (1195), and training procedures for police officers involved in investigative interviewing of children (1997). Graham is the immediate past Chair of the Society of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition (SARMAC), and President--elect of the European Association of Psychology of Law. Ray Bull is Professor of Psychology at the University of Portsmouth, England, UK. He has conducted research on witnessing since the late 1970s and on child witnesses since 1987. He regularly acts as an expert in legal cases involving child witness evidence. He has authored/co--authored over 100 papers in refereed research journals and chapters in 1991, Ray was asked by the British Government's Home Office (together with Professor Di Birch) to write the first draft of the Memorandum of Good Practice on Video Recorded Interviews with Child Witnesses for Criminal Proceedings (published in 1992). He is now part of the consortium working with the Home Office to revise the document, Ray is regularly asked by police forces and other organizations around the world to present on the investigative interviewing of children. In 1995, he was awarded a Higher Doctorate (Doctor of Science) in recognition of the quality and extent of his research.