Citation

Sas LD, Wolfe DA, Gowdey K. Crim. Justice Behav. 1996; 23(2): 338-357.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0093854896023002006

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Significant legislation was passed by the Canadian government in 1988 and 1993 to improve the handling of cases involving child victims of sexual abuse. These changes were expected to bring about more successful prosecutions, better protection for children, and less traumatic court experiences. Despite the improvements, the potential for secondary victimization of child victims in court increased. The need to properly prepare children to give evidence was highlighted. In response, the Canadian government funded two pilot projects on court preparation for child witnesses. This article describes one of these, the Child Witness Project at the London Family Court Clinic, which was the first court preparation program to formally evaluate the benefits of offering individual sessions of stress reduction and education to child witnesses as part of a court preparation protocol. The authors also offer recommendations for further reforms in the area of child sexual abuse prosecution.

Keywords: Juvenile justice

Language: en