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Contents
- Abstract
- Method
- Pilot Test of the Similarity Between the VCUG Procedure and Child Sexual Abuse
- Participants and Design
- Procedure
- CBCA Rating of the Data
- Verbal Familiarity with VCUG Procedure
- Results
- Analyses of CBCA Scores
- CBCA Scores and Verbal Familiarity With VCUG Procedure
- CBCA Score and Age
- Differences Between the Two VCUG Groups on Each of the Three Categories of CBCA Criteria
- Discussion
- Appendix A
Figures and Tables
Abstract
Statement Validity Assessment (SVA) is a comprehensive credibility assessment system, with the Criterion-Based Content Analysis (CBCA) as a core component. Worldwide, the CBCA is reported to be the most widely used veracity assessment instrument. We tested and confirmed the hypothesis that CBCA scores are affected by event familiarity; descriptions of familiar events are more likely to be judged true than are descriptions of unfamiliar events. CBCA scores were applied to transcripts of 114 children who recalled a routine medical procedure (control) or a traumatic medical procedure that they had experienced one time (relatively unfamiliar) or multiple times (relatively familiar). CBCA scores were higher for children in the relatively familiar than the relatively unfamiliar condition, and CBCA scores were significantly correlated with age. Results raise serious questions regarding the forensic suitability of the CBCA for assessing the veracity of children's accounts.
Between 1984 and 1990, America watched in horror while in Los Angeles, Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, were charged with 65 counts of abuse, including rape, sodomy, fondling, oral copulation, and the drugging of children. The McMartin Preschool case made legal history for its sheer magnitude; the trial lasted 7 years, from its inception to the final verdicts, and cost the state of California over $16 million. In the end, the defendants were not convicted of any of the 65 counts against them. The McMartin trial shocked Los Angeles and the nation. One of the reasons was the disconcerting contrast between the fact that apparently, many of the child witnesses truly believed that what they reported did occur; yet the occurrence of many of the reported events seemed very unlikely. Sadly, the judicial and investigative procedures available were limited in their ability to determine which of the children's accounts described true events, if any,...