Psychological Analysis of Children’s Lies: A Challenge in Credibility for Psycholegal Experts

Abstract

Because of the fiasco of some judiciary cases, the question of child’s lies fascinates the specialists and the experts. It is important to know the specific dynamic of child’s lies, and to draw out some consequences. The child has to be treated like a victim or a witness as everyone else would be, that is to say as a potentially flawed or suggestible human being. Notwithstanding the quality of the information laying in the child’s testimony, it is important to check its credibility. The seriousness of the analysis of the child’s testimony and of its evaluation involves an expertise proven by an ethic which nobody can doubt. In the cases of sexual assaults or ill-treatments, the child’s word is replaced rightly. Even if there are still some mistakes when appreciating, the evaluation tools contribute to a better analysis of children credibility (victims or witnesses). In those cases where truths, oblivion, traumatic memory, falsification, denial, lies, and a lot of other psychological components are mixed, specialists’ and decision maker’s responsibility is strongly engaged.