Child as a Witness

In the paper presented below Małgorzata Toeplitz-Wiśniewska attempts to define the characteristics of a child's cognitive, emotional, motivational, and social development at different life stages, and formulate the resulting guidelines for interviewers, who elicit information about offences from children. Moreover, the article offers several recommendations concerning interviewing children, which stem from research on child witnesses’ credibility.

The interview room must meet both the psychophysical needs of children, and the formal requirements associated with legal interviews. The technical equipment includes a big one-way mirror, providing good visibility, a camera transmitting the image to the other room and recording the interview, as well as microphones registering sounds. Opposite to popular beliefs, we have not hidden the camera and the microphones.

Child as a Witness

The article written by Monika Sajkowska and Jolanta Szymańczak presents major international and national efforts aimed at improving the situation of crime victims, as well as developing regulations, which would define the standards of public institutions' conduct toward victims of crime. Special attention is devoted to victims who are most vulnerable and therefore require special support, i.e., child victims of crime.

The article written by Jolanta Zmarzlik describes "Mazowiecka" Child Advocacy Center - place created to meet children's needs and to reduce their distress associated with the role of a court witness or a participant in court proceedings.

The full version of the article is available below.