Lawyers rapport building practices with child witnesses.

Background: Existing literature on rapport building in forensic interviews with children has primarily focused on police or social workers (Collins et al., 2002); overlooking the lawyer-child relationship.

Objective: The present study was a novel exploration of the rapport building process between lawyers and child witnesses during the interview stage of a criminal proceeding.

"Locked in a Jail Cell in Your Own Home": Child Maltreatment Investigators' Perspectives of COVID-19's Effects on Maltreated Children.

Children were at a greater risk of adverse experiences, including maltreatment, during the COVID-19 pandemic given the increased stress experienced by families and reduced visibility outside the home. Child maltreatment investigators witnessed the effects of the pandemic on maltreated children and offer valuable insight regarding children's experiences during the pandemic. The objective of this study was to examine child maltreatment investigators' perspectives of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maltreated children and their families in Canada.

A taxonomy of groomer profiles: Comparisons of in-person, online, and mixed groomers through the examination of Canadian judicial decisions.

Background: Sexual grooming in cases of child sexual abuse (CSA) has captured the attention of researchers over the past decades. While early research focused on offenders who groomed children in person, our knowledge of online groomers has begun to increase. However, there has not been a concomitant increase in understanding of groomers who use both in-person and online grooming strategies (i.

Adult's veracity judgments of Black and White children's statements: the role of perceiver and target race and prejudice-related concerns.

Introduction: Seldom has work investigated systematic biases in adults' truth and lie judgments of children's reports. Research demonstrates that adults tend to exhibit a bias toward believing a child is telling the truth, but it is unknown whether this truth bias applies equally to all children. Given the pervasiveness of racial prejudice and anti-Black racism in the United States, the current study examined whether adults are more or less likely to believe a child is telling the truth based on the race of the child (Black or White), the race of the adult perceiver (Black or White), and the perceiver's concerns regarding appearing unprejudiced.

Lawyers' experience questioning children in Canadian court.

Background: International research has explored lawyer-child interactions in court; however, little focus has been spent examining other aspects of lawyers' interactions with children (e.g., interview preparation; building rapport).

Perceptions of familiar and unfamiliar ear- and eyewitnesses.

A witness's relationship with a defendant is frequently discussed in criminal trials, yet investigations into perceptions of this relationship have been scarce. Further, an exploration of witnesses other than eyewitnesses has been missing from the literature. The present studies explored how witness type and familiarity with a defendant impact the perceived credibility of a witness.