Access to Justice for Children with Autism

In the Making it Fair for Child Witnesses study (2013-2016), we explored the performance of children with and without an autism diagnosis during different stages of a criminal investigation. 

 

We aimed to answer the following questions…

 

• How do children on the autism spectrum fare across all the different stages of a criminal investigation (during initial questioning, in an investigative interview, when identifying perpetrators, and during cross-examination), relative to typically developing children?

 

• What can be done to improve the amount of information that children recall, without a subsequent decrease in accuracy (e.g., is the assistance of an intermediary useful)?

 

• How do the general public (who may be evaluating evidence as part of a jury) perceive witnesses on the autism spectrum?

 

• What factors (e.g., language, memory, attention) are associated with the performance of children with and without an autism diagnosis in a witness context?

 

You can read a summary of the project here.