When lawyers question children

This study assessed the impact of some complex question forms frequently used by attorneys who examine and cross-examine witnesses in the courtroom. Fifteen males and 15 females from each of four student populations (kindergarten, fourth grade, ninth grade, and college) viewed a videotaped incident and then responded to questions about the incident. Half the questions were asked in “law-yerese” (i.e., using complex question forms); the remaining half asked for the same information using simply phrased question forms of the same length. Lawyerese confused children, adolescents, and young adults alike. Questions that included multiple parts with mutually exclusive responses were the most difficult to answer; those that included negatives, double negatives or difficult vocabulary also posed significant problems. Results suggest that complex question forms impede truth-seeking and should be prohibited in court.     

Institutionalized Conflict Resolution: Have We Come to Expect Too Little?

Two very different contexts of the conflict resolution field — hostage negotiation and court-connected mediation—do share many similarities, particularly with regard to roles, responsibilities, and techniques. In both contexts, the emphasis is on the short-term "fix," or solution, rather than attention to the underlying reasons for a conflict and long-term societal change. This emphasis, though perhaps changing in the international relations area, permeates much of the institutionalized conflict resolution field and bears further examination by practitioners and researchers.