Child Witnesses In The Criminal Justice System

A report titled “Child witnesses in the New Zealand criminal courts: a review of practice and implications for policy” has been released by Auckland University of Technology’s Institute of Public Policy.

The research focuses on children up to 17 years of age who have given evidence as witnesses for the prosecution in criminal proceedings as complainants or witnesses. It uses data from 2008 and 2009 collected from Auckland, Manukau, Wellington and Christchurch District and High Courts. The report is the conclusion of a two year project and is being released as part of the two-day LexisNexis Child Law Conference 2010 at AUT.

The research shows that child witnesses faced long delays while awaiting trial as well as inappropriate questioning in the courtroom.

The report has ten recommendations which aim to both reduce children’s exposure to court delays and improving courts communication with children. Both of these factors are found to negatively impact on children’s ability to give their best evidence in court. The ten recommendations focus on changing legislation and improving the aims of existing legislation.

The independent research was funded by the New Zealand Law Foundation with contributions from the Ministry of Social Development, Ministry of Justice and the New Zealand Police.

A full copy of the report is available from the Law Foundation at: http://www.lawfoundation.org.nz/news/read.php?i=77