Oral Presentation: How do adults perceive children’s testimony elicited via a language interpreter?

Title: How do adults perceive children’s testimony elicited via a language interpreter?

Abstract:

Prosecution of crimes against youth often depends on youths’ testimony. This presents unique challenges for youth who are not fluent in the jurisdiction’s official language and are thus assigned language interpreters and for those individuals who are listening to and making judgments about interpreter-mediated testimony. The purpose of the present study was to advance understanding of how jurors perceive children and adolescents testifying via a language interpreter and the factors that influence their perceptions.

We assessed mock jurors’ perceptions of two audio recordings of investigative interviews with children and adolescents. A 2 (Age: child v. adolescent) x 2 (Interpreter: Present v. Absent) design was implemented with Age varied within-subjects and Interpreter varied between-subjects. Half of the English-speaking participants listened to an interview with a youth testifying in Spanish via an interpreter and half to an interview in English. Then, participants answered items regarding the youth (e.g., credibility, suggestibility, intelligence), interviewer, and interview. Data collection and analyses are currently underway and will be completed by May 2022.

Understanding mock jurors’ perceptions of interpreter-mediated interviews with youth is crucial for promoting access to justice for all youth. Our increasingly global society makes it vital to understand how adults perceive interpreter-mediated interviews.