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• Tested the effect of witness opinions and background information in investigation. • Witness opinions biased judgments of event cause and witness confidence. • Background information biased judgments of cause and the value of evidence. • Background information biased participants to misclassify more opinions as facts. • Paper provides bias mitigation suggestions for professionals in the field. Introduction : A unique feature of workplace investigations is the familiarity that investigators and witnesses have with the factors involved in the adverse incident. Familiarity creates expectations that can shape investigators' and witnesses' assumptions and opinions. The current research examined the biasing effect of non-factual witness claims on investigators' judgments. These claims, which we call 'uncheckable,' included opinions about factors involved in the event and the future. We also examined how participants' a priori knowledge of an employee's history influenced their judgments. Method: This experiment used a 2 (background information: control or unsafe) × 2 (uncheckable content: neutral or unsafe) between-subjects design. Participants were provided with background information about a worker (control or unsafe history) and a witness statement about a workplace event that contained uncheckable claims (neutral or worker as unsafe). We tested how our manipulations biased participants' judgments of: (i) the cause of the event, (ii) the witness's confidence and credibility, and (iii) the diagnosticity of the witness's account. We also tested if biasing background information affected how factual participants found the witness's statement. Results: Biasing uncheckable information (i.e., opinions) affected participants' judgments of event cause (ηp2 = 0.033) and increased their ratings of witness confidence (ηp2 = 0.074). Biasing background information about a worker affected participants' judgments of the cause of the event (ηp2 = 0.088), the diagnostic value of the witness statement (ηp2 = 0.054), and the number of factual claims in the witness statement, resulting in more uncheckable claims being misclassified as potential facts (ηp2 = 0.18). Conclusion: This experiment demonstrated the significant effect that non-factual witness statements and irrelevant background information can have on the interpretation of evidence and judgments about the cause of events. Practical Application: Understanding how contextual information can bias investigative judgment helps workplace investigators manage its influence in their judgment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article synthesizes results from historical newspaper analysis and archival research with standpoint epistemology to explore the dynamics of transnational eyewitnessing illustrated by Leonora Raines, a Paris-based American journalist who reported the Great War (1914-1918) for the metropolitan New York Sun. Few World War I military-press histories have explored how female reporters engaged in transnational journalism, harnessing their role as an "outsider within" to produce cross-border stories for audiences dependent on foreign news. Analysis of Raines' 126 articles, her scrapbook, and records from U.S. and German archives reveal her interactions with foreign sources, military censors, and propaganda across France, the Western Front, and Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision of the South African Constitutional Court in AK v. Minister of Police has implications for law enforcement agencies that fail the victims of crime. In this matter, the plaintiff sued the Minister and others for damages after officers had failed to rescue her from the perpetrator(s) of a protracted sexual assault and to conduct an adequate criminal investigation afterwards. The judgment deals with a noteworthy psycholegal issue, namely, whether the police are liable for any harm resulting from the plaintiff’s continued trauma exposure beyond the moment a competent search would have likely resulted in her rescue, when her trauma exposure was already prolonged. In this paper, we consider whether the interpretation of the expert evidence is consistent with the relevant research. Research suggests the psychological harm caused by police negligence may have been more than a matter of extended trauma exposure but also of supplemental trauma appraisals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do judges assess witness credibility? This question is particularly important in cases where child victims testify. These cases are usually of a sensitive nature (e.g., involving allegations of abuse) where there are no other testimonial or material evidence to corroborate the account of child victims. To better understand what actually happens when judges preside over trials about sexual interference, and how, in actual courtrooms, they use demeanour to assess the credibility of child victims, we conducted a qualitative thematic analysis of real courts judgements (n = 44). The results highlighted that when assessing credibility in actual courtrooms, judges make a variety of inferences from the demeanour of child victims who testify live, with striking differences (and similarities) when defendants are found not guilty than when they are found guilty. The results of our descriptive study also provided unique insights about (correct and incorrect) beliefs judges hold about child witnesses, and how, if children fail to display behaviour they are expected to display, or if they display behaviour they are not expected to display, child victims could face difficulties at several stages of the judicial process. We discuss the results based on the literature on nonverbal behaviour and child witnesses, explaining their scope for scholars and legal practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the new possibilities of enacting justice through the vast archives of digital eyewitness images and self-representations produced since 2011 by the grassroots Syrian opposition movement amidst both a nascent revolution and a war entailing gross human rights violations? Based on in-depth interviews with 15 anti-regime Syrian video activists, my article considers how the image makers themselves narrate the role and meaning of these archival records in efforts to reckon with Syria's tormented past and build a more just future. I thus seek to recognize the ongoing agency of the Syrian media activists who struggled, by centering them and their wishes in the current debate about the role that this new type of activist-fueled "human rights records" can play in helping to build roads to justice and healing in Syria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eyewitnesses may be exposed to multiple pieces of misinformation concerning the same original detail. The two misleading details contradicting each other enable detecting a discrepancy between them, which, given that only one of them can be true, should reduce credibility of the misinformation source(s) and improve reporting. This, however, can only happen at sufficiently high levels of misinformation availability (i.e., encoding of misinformation and its subsequent accessibility): with low misinformation availability, double misinformation should instead increase the misinformation effect, providing multiple chances of yielding to misinformation. To test these predictions, we experimentally manipulated misinformation availability (high vs. low) and presented double or single misinformation. However, double versus single misinformation presentation did not affect performance or interact with misinformation availability and participants frequently reported misinformation while fully detecting discrepancies between items. Therefore, discrepancy detection alone may not be sufficient in reducing the misinformation effect, with various decision‐making processes involved in reporting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When providing eyewitness testimony, people sometimes fabricate lies that supplement the truth by embellishing or adding new information. This study investigated whether participants confuse their fabricated lies for actually witnessed events over time. In two experiments employing different eyewitness events, participants viewed an event and were then asked to lie about unseen details and events. Memory was assessed after either a 1‐week (E1a & E2) or a 4‐week (E1b & E2) retention interval. In both experiments, participants falsely reported witnessing their lies after a 4‐week retention interval, but only one experiment (E2) obtained evidence for these memory errors at the shorter retention interval of 1‐week. In addition, when assessed repeatedly, lies that participants correctly rejected as not witnessed at the 1‐week retention interval were later incorrectly endorsed as witnessed when tested again at the 4‐week retention interval, thus showing that distinguishing lies from truth became more difficult over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between confidence and accuracy and the reliability of eyewitness identifications has attracted a lot of attention. In contrast, relatively little is known about the relationship between eyewitness confidence and the accuracy of recall memory in interview contexts. Here, we manipulated questioning approaches to investigate the impact of Free‐Recall and Cued‐Recall questions, whereby the latter were witness‐compatible (questions concerning details reported in the preceding Free‐Recall) or witness‐incompatible questions. We also manipulated the order these questions were asked. A sample of 124 mock witness participants watched a crime‐video and subsequently recalled the event to understand the impact of question type and order on confidence‐accuracy calibration. Our results show that a Free‐Recall invitation and compatible (compared to incompatible) questions promoted more stable confidence. Compatible questions yielded fewer errors, more accurate details, and promoted more reliable confidence‐accuracy calibration and discrimination, especially when they preceded the incompatible questions. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper builds upon and extends Christian and legal scholarship on the civil rights movement by illuminating a climate of religious freedom that served as a catalyst for and was integral to the success of the spirited activism of the civil rights movement. To date, scholars have not extensively considered how the expansion of religious freedom in church and state jurisprudence both directly and indirectly created a climate that contributed to the success of the CRM, and how advancements in civil rights impacted the broader revolution occurring in constitutional rights. The climate of religious freedom included court support for evangelizing in residentially exclusive areas, exemptions for conscientious opposers from participating in oath swearing and other ceremonies, and exemptions from other general laws that unduly inhibited the free exercise of religious rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chronic exposure to stress from adverse early experiences such as armed conflict can generate long-term changes in various neurotransmitter systems and cortical structures involved in the individual's ability to respond appropriately to the social context. Child victims of armed conflict show difficulties in executive functioning and social cognition that impact adaptability. The objective of this exploratory study was to evaluate the efficacy of a sociocognitive intervention on the executive behaviors, including executive functioning and social cognition, of children who are victims of conflict. The sample consisted of 26 children aged between 6 and 11 years (M = 8.58, SD = 1.65) and was divided into two equal groups. The treatment condition (N = 13) received 16 sessions of the sociocognitive intervention. Compared to the standard treatment group, the intervention group had large posttreatment effect sizes (Cohen's d > 0.8) on variables of executive functioning, social cognition, and executive behaviors. The results obtained reveal the importance of intervening cognition and behavior in unfavorable social contexts and in early stages of development. Public Significance Statement: This exploratory study shows the importance of carrying out neuropsychological interventions in children affected by the Colombian armed conflict, considering their family life, socioeconomic experiences, and the nature of the violence they faced. In addition, this article contributes to the study of armed conflicts from a neuropsychological perspective, a scientific discipline that is underexplored in contexts of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the rule changes approved by the Supreme Court of Missouri in March 2024 regarding the absence of witnesses and the collection of race and ethnicity data under the National Center for State Courts' National Open Court Data Standards and Court Operating Rule 4.07.1. Other topics include the recommended explanatory instruction before jury selection on civil cases.

We continue our study of Sierpiński-type colourings. In contrast to the prequel paper, we focus here on colourings for ideals stratified by their completeness degree. In particular, improving upon Ulam's theorem and its extension by Hajnal, it is proved that if κ is a regular uncountable cardinal that is not weakly compact in L, then there is a universal witness for non-weak-saturation of κ -complete ideals. Specifically, there are κ -many decompositions of κ such that, for every κ -complete ideal J over κ , and every B ∈ J + , one of the decompositions shatters B into κ -many J + -sets. A second focus here is the feature of narrowness of colourings, one already present in the theorem of Sierpiński. This feature ensures that a colouring suitable for an ideal is also suitable for all superideals possessing the requisite completeness degree. It is proved that unlike successors of regulars, every successor of a singular cardinal admits such a narrow colouring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I engage with the predicament of witnessing as a condition for persecution and displacement. I argue that observing violence during war is a critical form of implication. In the context of the Colombian armed conflict, members of armed groups often threaten the lives of those who observe their acts of violence, producing a chain of terror that extends outward from the original moment of witnessing. This chain of violence collapses a supposed distinction between the witness‐as‐observer (testis) and the witness‐as‐survivor (superstes). In a global context of exclusionary asylum and immigration systems, this article provides an expansive understanding of why some people face persecution and are forced to flee their homes and cross international borders. Through an ethnography of refugees' experiences witnessing and subsequently surviving persecution in Colombia, this article contributes to anthropological scholarship on displacement, refuge, asylum, and witnessing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This microhistorical analysis of the witness testimony given during an inheritance dispute between a noble Piedmontese widow and her deceased husband’s nephew focuses on the political agency of witnesses. Although carefully selected and coached by legal counsel, the witnesses for the nephew undermined his case by repeatedly bringing up his gambling habit and poor money management. Witnesses like these took control of their depositions in order to introduce their own narrative into the judicial record and influence the outcome of a lawsuit. By considering the volatile political context in Piedmont, where a civil war had just ended, this paper argues that witnesses could use their testimony to gain a political voice. These witnesses turned on the litigant who had summoned them and expressed support for his adversary, thereby aligning themselves with the faction that had won the war and perhaps gaining a well-placed patron at the ducal court of Savoy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between poetry and testimony in order to outline a viable framework for interpreting testimonial poetry (or "poetry of witness," in Carolyn Forché's terms) as a literary genre in its own right. Neglected in favor of other, mimetically oriented modes of witnessing, especially those in narrative fiction and documentary prose, testimonial poetry has not been extensively studied, and when it has, the studies were often based on inadequate notions of testimony that fail to recognize witnessing as a broader social and linguistic practice. Relying on the sociological approach to eyewitness testimony developed by Renaud Dulong (notably in Le témoin oculaire [1998]), this article proposes a new understanding of poetic testimony, based neither on an overly broad notion of witnessing as living through an event or era, nor on a narrow understanding of witnessing as providing a faithful documentary account of a personal experience. Much like its prose counterpart, poetic testimony enacts a quasi‐contractual relationship between authors and readers, whereby the former are committed to telling the truth about a directly experienced event of public importance and the latter, in return, are committed to considering seriously their words, approaching them in good faith. This relationship is driven by an underlying ethical imperative whereby the author acts as a moral witness in Avishai Margalit's sense of the term, and the readers assume the role of a moral community sympathetic to their plight. By referencing examples from American, Hungarian, Russian, French, Polish, and South Slavic twentieth‐century poetry, the article shows how a "testimonial" reading of a poem, often very strongly favored on intuitive grounds, modifies generic expectations based on traditional poetic genres and explores its interpretative and ethical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Machine-generated evidence is now ubiquitous in criminal trials, and more sophisticated forms of inculpatory evidence are on the way. Courts have almost universally held that the Confrontation Clause does not give criminal defendants a constitutional right to confront machine-generated evidence, except in narrow cases where the evidence also contains testimonial statements made by a human operator. Several scholars have countered that the Confrontation Clause should be read more broadly to consider machine accusers as "witnesses" that trigger confrontation rights. While cross-examination has been the traditional confrontation right in the American legal system, there are machine analogs such as source code disclosure, broadened discovery, machine access, and expanded live testimony that could be afforded to criminal defendants facing machine-generated evidence. This Note presumes that the right to machine confrontation should exist and focuses on which of the proposed alternatives constitutes meaningful machine confrontation in light of the technology at issue. Existing calls for machine confrontation propose blanket solutions without fully considering the practical concerns judges invoke, the realities defense attorneys face, or the types of technology involved. This Note aims to fill this gap with three contributions. First, it provides a comprehensive view of the technologies entering criminal trials, including those sophisticated tools that will one day dominate discussion. Second, it proposes a taxonomy of the technological characteristics underlying these tools, focusing on characteristics that implicate the Confrontation Clause's concerns about dignity and reliability. Third, it considers how these underlying characteristics dictate which proposed confrontation rights would be most meaningful. A machine-specific approach like the one proposed here serves three important functions. First, by considering how machine confrontation would work, it rebuts the judicial argument that such confrontation is impossible or impractical. Second, it offers practical guidance for defendants and cash-strapped attorneys who must face these machines. Third, it sets the stage for other interventions--if judges continue to reject the Confrontation Clause as the vehicle to respond to the problems of machine-generated evidence, legislatures and rulemaking bodies will need guidance on how to structure alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsurprisingly, victims and perpetrators often view aggressive behaviors differently. The current study examined whether victims, perpetrators, and witnesses also explained aggressive behaviors differently. The current study included 408 participants who recalled a time when they harmed another person (i.e., perpetrator memory), when another person harmed them (i.e., victim memory), and when they witnessed an aggressive behavior (i.e., witness memory). Replicating past research, participants rated their recalled aggressive behaviors from the victim perspective as being more harmful and less justified than they did for their recalled behaviors from the perpetrator perspective. When examining their explanations for the behaviors, participants most often explained their own aggressive behaviors by referring to their mental deliberations that led to their behavior (i.e., reason explanations). In comparison, they referred to background causal factors (i.e., causal history of reasons explanations)—such as personality traits, demographic factors, cultural norms, etc.—more when explaining others' aggressive behaviors, especially when the explanation was from the victim perspective. These findings show the subtleties in how people communicate about their aggressive interactions: When communicating about their own aggressive behaviors, people use modes of explanations that portray their behaviors as sensible, and when communicating about a time when another person behaved aggressively towards them, people use modes of explanations that omit the thought processes that led to those behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the genre of the testimonio, this article bears witness to the historical evolution of the New York Puerto Rican community. It highlights the connections between my personal journey into graduate studies, where I discovered Andreu Iglesias' manuscript of Memorias de Bernardo Vega, and subsequently, the influence of Vega's testimony in my own research. An eyewitness to more than forty years of Puerto Rican life in the New York metropolis, the cigar maker arrived in New York in 1916, became an activist, and wrote a major source on a century of Puerto Rican life in New York. My initial encounter with Vega's unpublished manuscript was in 1975. The Spanish version, Memorias de Bernardo Vega, appeared in print in 1977, followed by the English translation, Memoirs of Bernardo Vega in 1984. Nonetheless, the recovery of Vega's original manuscript in 2011 raised issues about the author's original intent, voice, and genre. This generationally focused article explores the course of events leading to the publication of these key sources, and the possible effect the original manuscript might have on Vega's published work and on my monograph, From Colonia to Community: The History of Puerto Ricans in New York City. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interplay between grand jury secrecy and witness non-disclosure orders is easily quite puzzling given the statutory silence on the issue: Furthen the exclusion of witnesses from the "cloak of secrecy"2 granted by Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e)3 may seem as perplexing as it does common sense, depending on your views surrounding criminal investigations in the United States. Regardless, the main points of contention here lie amidst the tension between the efficiency and confidentiality of the investigative process as they are squarely met with countervailing First Amendment interests. In 2017, the D.C. Circuit upheld a routine non-disclosure order ONDO") issued to Uber Technologies along with a subpoena for business records, preventing the company from alerting its customer, the subject of a grand jury investigation, of the existence or contents of the subpoena for 180 days: The Government asserted, as it routinely does, that disclosure would compromise the investigation by giving targets the chance to flee or tamper with evidence.5 In doing so, the Court emphasized three widely accepted notions among the U.S. Courts of Appeals: First, that grand jury secrecy underpins the "proper functioning of our grand jury system" (as recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States)6. Second, that district courts are at times afforded "the authority to Ifill statutory interstices. '"7 And third, that nowhere in the Federal Rules does there exist an explicit prohibition on witness non-disclosure orders. Two years after In re United States 2017, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia backtracked and denied issuing a similar grand jury non-disclosure order on account of the D.C. Circuit's altered interpretation of Rule 6(e) in McKeever v. Barr.~ Practically speaking, the decision considerably narrowed the availability of non-disclosure orders on grand jury witnesses to solely instances of explicit statutory authorization in the District of Columbia Federal courts. This article examines the varied administration of witness NDOs through a holistic review Of the relevant historical, legislative, and judicial views of the grand jury, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the First Amendment to propose a uniform solution to the circuit split. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when society fought an aggressive and deadly virus, our connection to the outside world became predominantly virtual. Videoconference technology became essential in state and federal civil judicial proceedings. In light of the unprecedented challenges presented by the pandemic and its long-lasting impact on the criminal justice system, this Article argues for amending Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 26 to permit remote witness testimony when a witness is unavailable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interviewing of victims, witnesses and suspects is important in helping resolve criminal investigations. In Japan, developments have recently occurred in the training of the police and their public prosecutors in these key tasks. Whilst literature exists on autism in Japan, studies examining police/public prosecutor interviews with autistic adults conducted in that country (and indeed, any other) remain scant. As elsewhere in the world, identification of those who manifest characteristics prevalent on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) scale, has been found to be problematical to criminal justice professionals. To help address this deficit in understanding, we provide an overview of the literature concerning contemporary understanding of the challenges facing autistic adults as they attempt to reveal their verbal accounts, as well as suggested techniques when interviewing adults on the ASD scale during criminal investigations, offering lessons learned from research conducted around the world that provide potentially promising solutions for Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current article provides a contemporary review of the best practices for interviewing older adults about crimes they witnessed or experienced. Specifically, we provide a detailed overview of how investigators can use a range of interviewing adaptations and procedures to acquire detailed and accurate maltreatment disclosures from older adults. In addition to discussing well-established investigative interviewing practices (e.g. rapport building, free-recall, cognitive instructions and prompts), this article also summarizes more recent literature on the benefits of multidisciplinary investigations, use of assistive technology and interview accommodations, along with effective practices for working with minority and marginalized older adults. Lastly, several research, professional and policy recommendations are provided for supporting older adults during investigative interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to account for the recent explosion in the use of expert legal evidence given by criminal law academics in criminal trials in Indonesia. This issue has received almost no scholarly attention, despite experts sometimes even opining on the guilt or innocence of defendants. Focusing on the evidence given for criminal trials by three preeminent Indonesian legal scholars, this article examines the form and content of the evidence, the justifications put forward in Indonesia for allowing it, and whether judges are receptive to it. Contrary to the assumptions of lawyers, we find that, overall, expert evidence appears to have very little discernible impact on judicial decision-making. It does, however, give the state an evidentiary advantage over defendants in some cases. We then consider what our findings say about the Indonesian judicial system—particularly the perceived competence of its judges—and the legal system more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research on psychosocial working conditions as risk factors of workplace bullying builds on the underlying assumption that targets' subjective reports of their psychosocial working conditions are shared by their non-bullied colleagues. This study investigates differences in perceptions of such conditions by comparing the ratings from targets of bullying, witnesses, and non-witnesses in groups with at least one target, and groups free from bullying. We also examine if known work-related risk factors predict a group level estimate of bullying with the targets excluded from the analyses. Data included 2215 employees in 195 work groups from Sweden. Targets of bullying perceived the psychosocial working conditions more negatively compared to non-exposed colleagues. In addition, non-exposed in work groups with at least one target reported their working conditions more negatively than those working in groups free from bullying. Associations between examined working conditions and group levels of bullying were significant even when the targets were excluded from the analyses, albeit less strong. The results show that working conditions are risk factors of bullying, but also indicate that previous studies may have overestimated the associations. Future research should consider differences in perceptions of targets and non-targets when investigating work-related risk factors of bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by a question of Stover, we discuss an example of a Zariski-dense finitely generated subgroup of \mathrm {SL}_5(\mathbb {Z}) that is not finitely presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After an eyewitness completes a lineup, officers are advised to ask witnesses how confident they are in their identification. Although researchers in the lab typically study eyewitness confidence numerically, confidence in the field is primarily gathered verbally. In the current study, we used a natural language-processing approach to develop an automated model to classify verbal eyewitness confidence statements. Across a variety of stimulus materials and witnessing conditions, our model correctly classified adult witnesses' (N = 4,541) level of confidence (i.e., high, medium, or low) 71% of the time. Confidence-accuracy calibration curves demonstrate that the model's confidence classification performs similarly in predicting eyewitness accuracy compared to witnesses' self-reported numeric confidence. Our model also furnishes a new metric, confidence entropy, that measures the vagueness of witnesses' confidence statements and provides independent information about eyewitness accuracy. These results have implications for how empirical scientists collect confidence data and how police interpret eyewitness confidence statements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Stadtarchiv in Münster, Germany holds a medieval Hebrew fragment with portions of the daily Shema Yisrael prayer. Measuring 510 mm in height, this fragment is but a quarter of a large-sized parchment sheet, which was designed to be hung on a wall. This study introduces the fragment and describes its material features and then suggests its possible function against the backdrop of talmudic discussions on biblical texts that are incorporated in prayer. In light of the halakhic position that biblical verses should not be recited from memory but only from a written text, the original sheet was intended to provide worshippers with an accessible copy of the Shema text, since many did not have personal prayerbooks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typically, an eyewitness' verbal confidence is used to judge the reliability of their lineup identification. Across three experiments (N = 3976), we examined eyewitnesses' own words confidence in their lineup decision. For identification decisions (n = 1099), we identified 781 quantitatively unique responses representing 132 qualitatively unique statements that could be categorized into low, medium, and high confidence. For rejectors (n = 781), we identified 599 quantitatively unique responses representing 143 qualitatively unique responses that could be categorized into low, medium, and high confidence. Most participants provided a verbal phrase (e.g., pretty sure) but a significant proportion—34.19% of identifiers and 29.05% of rejectors—provided numbers (e.g., 80%). The present data highlight the variability in how confidence is expressed. The criminal justice system would benefit from guidance for interpreting verbal confidence. We provide a picture of eyewitnesses' verbal confidence as a first step. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is nothing new about the legal system discounting the credibility of women, people of color, and people behind bars. Historically, the mythology of these three "liars" has given rise to evidentiary rules that equate female chastity with truthfulness, and Blackness (or its proxy-a criminal record) with dishonesty. Examples include the doctrine of prompt complaint and laws barring Black people from testifying against whites. In recent history, the law has steadily retreated from rules endorsing explicit bias. But disbelief based on race and gender bias persists even in unlikely places, such as progressive legislative reform. This Article explores the problem of the "credibility discount" in New York's Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA.). Passed in 2019, the DVSJA allows for reduced sentences for criminalized survivors Of domestic violence whose abuse was a significant contributing factor to their offense. This groundbreaking law serves as a blueprint for reformers nationwide. But it also contains a pleading requirement that sanctions a presumption of incredibility: incarcerated survivors must corroborate their claims Of abuse with documentary evidence from a purportedly more reliable source, such as the police, a doctor, or a third-party witness. Applicants facing this hurdle stand at the convergence of the three "liars": they are disproportionately Black and brown women serving long prison sentences. Many Of them never reported their abuse, and no one saw it happen. By refusing to credit a survivor's narrative standing alone, this trailblazing statute inadvertently reinforces a system Of disbelief based on bias. It gives rise to epistemic injustice that disproportionately affects marginalized communities and undermines the law's vital mission of freeing criminalized survivors. To effectively disrupt the abuse-to-prison pipeline, New York and other states must embrace a paradigm shift away from credibility discounting and towards belief through legislative amendment, judicial leniency, and trauma-informed advocacy. But in tandem with these reforms, we must continue to envision opportunities for community healing that lie beyond the criminal legal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surgical myectomy is recommended for symptomatic hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM) after optimal pharmacological therapy. Percutaneous transluminal septal myocardial ablation (PTSMA) is reserved for high-risk adults. Symptomatic patients below 25 years underwent either surgery or PTSMA after heart-team discussion and informed consent. Echocardiography assessed gradients in surgical group. PTSMA group underwent invasive transseptal hemodynamic assessment, selective coronary angiography and super-selective cannulation of septal perforators using microcatheters. Contrast echocardiography through the microcatheter identified the myocardial target for PTSMA. Hemodynamic and electrocardiographic monitoring guided alcohol injection. Both groups were continued on beta-blockers. Symptoms, echocardiographic gradients and Brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) measurements were assessed on follow-up. Twelve patients aged 5–23 years (11–98 kg) formed the study group. Indications for PTSMA in 8 patients included abnormal mitral valve anatomy warranting replacement (n = 3), Jehovah's witness (n = 2), severe neurodevelopmental and growth retardation (n = 1) and refusal of surgery (n = 2). PTSMA targeted first perforator (n = 5), second perforator (n = 2) and anomalous septal artery from left main trunk (n = 1). Outflow gradient reduced from 92.5 ± 19.7 to 33.1 ± 13.5 mmHg. At a median follow-up of 38 months (range 3–120 weeks), the peak instantaneous echocardiographic gradient was 32 ± 16.5 mmHg. Gradient reduced in four surgical patients from 86.5 ± 16.3 mmHg to 42 ± 14.7 mm Hg. All patients were in NYHA class I/II on follow-up. The mean NTproBNP in PTSMA group reduced from 6084 ± 3628 pg/ml to 3081 ± 2019 pg/ml; it was 1396 and 1795 pg/ml in surgery. PTSMA may be considered in medically refractory high-risk young patients. It relieves symptoms and reduces gradient. Though surgery is preferred in young patients, PTSMA may have a role in selected patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Prague Rules has been presented as civil law's rules on the taking of evidence in international arbitration. It has been defended that the Prague Rules are a disruptive alternative regarding the IBA Rules. The aim of this paper is check if the Prague Rules are part of civil law. To do this, we will compare the Prague Rules with the Spanish Civil Procedure Act, the Spanish Arbitration Act, the Code of Best Practices in Arbitration of the Spanish and Ibero-American Arbitration Club, and the IBA Rules. The answer of this paper will reveal that the Prague Rules are part of civil law, but they are not a really innovation about evidence procedure in international arbitration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject matter of the present study consists of a theoretical and practical account of the modality of hearing the witness in the judicial process, also illustrated by the title of the present study, in this lecture I tried to deal with a series of theoretical and practical issues from the field of criminal procedure, criminalistics and penal, salts have been elaborated by various authors in the specialty polishes. We cannot talk about the key procedures applied to the hearing of witnesses, without knowing the criminal procedural provisions that regulate the given field, and at the same time, without knowing the personality of the witness from a psychological point of view. The conducted study deals with the well-known keys and methods regarding interviewing witnesses. Complete problems are addressed regarding witness depositions with obvious implications both in the criminal investigation phase and in the judicial sequestration phase. The given field has been subjected to numerous trials, taking into account the degree to which the criminalistic key procedures carry it, being a significant one, applied to the hearing of the witness, both from a theoretical point of view and from a practical point of view. The purpose and objectives of this work they consist in studying the mode of hearing the witness with a view to the fair settlement of the case. Achieving this goal requires solving several problems, respectively: Delimitation of the theoretical basis on the psychological process of forming witness statements; Identifying the rights and obligations of the witness; Defining the elements and types of information reception; Trying to remember the facts; Representation of the reproduction of facts; Presentation of preparation for the hearing of witnesses; Determining and clarifying theoretical approaches regarding the hearing of witnesses; Presentation of the means of recording the statements of the witness; The substantiation and highlighting of the general expectations of hearing minor witnesses; Highlighting the peculiarities of the hearing of other groups of witnesses. In the first chapter, I carried out a study on a general representation of the psychological process of training witness statements. Thus, I referred to the rights and obligations of witnesses, I related the elements and types of information reception, and I made an analysis on them. Also, we realized the resume of notions and the importance of the witness's statements, we highlighted the characteristics of the memorization of facts and of the reproduction of facts. In the second chapter, I made a study on the preparation procedures for the hearing of the witnesses and I related the key of the hearing of the witnesses, and in the last paragraph of this chapter I presented the means of recording the statements of the witness. In the third chapter, I performed an analysis of the general expectations of the hearing of minor witnesses and the particularities of the hearing of other categories of witnesses. In the end, I presented the impressions left after the study carried out, presenting at the same time different opinions, presumably also some recommendations regarding the studied field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous research has highlighted the potentially detrimental effects of pre‐interview preparation on witness memory within an interview context (Rivard et al., 2016). The present study examined the effect of an interviewer's pre‐interview knowledge on eyewitness memory beyond the initial interview. Method: Student witnesses were interviewed one week after viewing a mock crime event by a student interviewer who was either correctly informed, incorrectly informed, or uninformed (blind) to case details and who was either told to avoid suggestions or was not given cautionary instructions. Results: Analyses of the witnesses' recall quantity and quality one week after the interview revealed that witnesses of blind interviewers recalled more details than witnesses of incorrectly informed interviewers. Witnesses of blind interviewers were also more accurate than witnesses of incorrectly informed interviewers, but only when interviewers were warned not to ask suggestive questions. Implications: Findings suggest that interviewer training and pre‐interview knowledge may play an important role in witness recall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This two‐phase study employed a mixed‐methods design to explore UK police officers' perceptions and experiences of promoting honesty in child witnesses with a special focus on the recommended inclusion of Truth‐Lies Discussions (TLDs) at the start of interviews with children. Method: In Phase 1, police officers completed an online survey designed to cover their experiences and perceptions regarding truth‐promotion with child witnesses. In Phase 2, police officers were individually interviewed to elicit an in‐depth understanding of current practice relating to this aspect of investigative interviews with children. Results: Around half of the survey respondents believed that TLDs promote honesty in children. The majority reported always using TLDs during interviews to ensure compliance with UK best‐practice guidance. There was evidence of a misconception among some police officers that children's performance on TLDs was related to their subsequent truth‐telling behaviour. Following analysis of the interview transcripts, we found a main theme of police officers' uses of TLDs, which included (i) gauging children's conceptual understanding of truths/lies, (ii) ensuring no deviation from guidance and (iii) communicating children's credibility to the court. A second main theme revealed the challenges and obstacles police officers perceived when embarking on TLDs. These were that (i) one type of TLD is not suitable for all children, (ii) the training is insignificant and the application is inappropriate and (iii) participants sometimes use alternative strategies to promote honesty with children. Conclusion: Police officers reported following guidance because a failure to do so would jeopordise children's testimony and provided recommendations for future practice‐informed research designs to test techniques for the promotion of honesty in child witnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entanglement witnesses (EWs) are a fundamental tool for the detection of entanglement. We investigate the inertia of bipartite EWs constructed by the partial transpose of NPT states. Furthermore, we find out most of the inertia of the partial transpose of the two-qutrit bipartite NPT states. As an application, we extend our results to high-dimensional states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The aim of the study is to assess obstetric and fetal outcomes of Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) mothers in an inner city teaching hospital, as well as to examine the acceptance rates of various blood fractions and blood transfusion alternatives. Methods: Case series to evaluate the maternal and fetal outcomes of JWs over a nine period between 2013 and 2021. Results: There were 146 pregnancies extracted from our database, of which 10 were early pregnancy losses. Data from 136 deliveries > 24 weeks' gestation were assessed, with a mean maternal age and gestational age of 30.26 (± 5.4) years and 38.7 (± 5.3) weeks, respectively. 57% had normal vaginal deliveries, 8% had instrumental births and 35% had caesarean births. Mean estimated blood loss at caesarean was 575 (± 305.6) mls, while the overall mean estimated loss was 427.8 (± 299.8) mls. Cell salvage was performed in all caesarean sections but autologous transfusion was only necessary for 26%. Consultant presence was documented in 62% of caesarean births. The mean birthweight and 5-min Apgar scores were 3.31 (± 0.05) kg and 9.1 (± 0.09), respectively. There were no maternal deaths or admissions to the adult intensive care unit and the most serious complication was a uterine rupture following a trial of scar, after which the baby required cooling for hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy. Conclusions: Pregnant JWs received obstetric care led by senior clinicians, with optimisation of haematinics, minimizing of blood loss at delivery and access to technology such as cell salvage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to extend discourses of embodiment by deploying Alaimo's concept of transcorporeality in the context of our grappling with complexities of bearing witness to deforestation and ecological destruction in Alberta's Tar Sands. Transcorporeality captures senses of porosity among human, nonhuman, and more-than-human bodies and constitutes a productive perspective from which to ethically engage with ecological destruction. Through our artwork and dialogic exchange with each other, and our embodied thinking with the works of other artists and scholars concerned with ecological atrocity, we attend to challenges, nuances, and possibilities of witnessing in ways that both attune to our embodiment and seek to decenter the human. We contend that arts-based practices of being, knowing, and doing offer openings for re-figuring the toxic entanglements that pervade current ecological relations and illustrating pathways toward more regenerative futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars in pragmatics have long been interested in how knowledge is construed, contested and legitimised. Much recent work in pragmatics has focused on developing more detailed theoretical understandings of epistemic positioning and epistemic authority, including in institutional contexts which are typically characterised by knowledge asymmetries and power inequalities. Yet the relational consequences of epistemic positioning have received little attention, therefore, this article aimed to investigate how authority and community are simultaneously negotiated in interaction, turn by turn. Taking a social semiotic approach, combining analysis using exchange structure, evidence and epistemic stance frameworks, this article examines a public hearing of the 2010 Senate Committee Inquiry into Donor Conception in Australia. Findings reveal four cumulative discursive patterns: donor-conceived witnesses positioned their lived experience as non-negotiable, cast doubt on fertility practitioners' expertise, layered opinions upon experience and employed recognised knowledges to bolster authority. This article introduces the concept of 'lived expertise'; that is, authority grounded in experience and sustained through awareness of additional forms of experiential and institutional knowledges. Empirically, this study sheds light on how donor-conceived people – as people with lived experience – expand the subject positions afforded to them in institutional contexts, inviting legitimacy and belonging. • Epistemic authority is negotiated in interaction • Data from a public hearing of a Senate Committee Inquiry were analysed • Witnesses use experiential and institutional knowledges to sustain authority • Analysis reveals the discursive patterns that contribute to lived expertise • Donor-conceived witnesses enact authority on donor conception [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores qualitatively the experiences of individuals shunned by the Jehovah's Witnesses community. Four key themes emerge from the 21 semistructured videoconferencing interviews which form the research data analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2019). These themes, namely Reasons for Being Shunned, the Judicial Committee, and Consequences of Religious Shunning and Reinstatement, shed light on the events and behaviour which led to the public announcement of the participants' formal shunning and on the controlling environment the religious community has created by endorsing a culture based on fear, guilt, and shame. Although research conducted to explore the experiences of religious shunning is not abundant, the findings of the current study are in line with previous research, highlighting that the individual's journey from being a member to leaving the community is a multifaceted experience, influenced by several factors, which has a detrimental impact on their well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored adults' perceptions of evidence-based interview frameworks in the context of sexual assault, in order to examine stakeholders' suggestions that police interviews are not sensitive to complainants psychological and emotional needs. Participants (N= 91) watched a video of an implied sexual assault and were randomly assigned to one of three interview conditions: the cognitive interview (CI), a streamlined interview for vulnerable witnesses (SIM), and the same streamlined interview with narrative practice (SIM+P). After the interview, participants evaluated their perceptions of the interview process and interviewer. Their non-verbal behaviors during the interviews were also compared across interview frameworks. CI participants reported more information than SIM and SIM+P participants, but the reverse was true when interview length was controlled. CI participants perceived the interview as more effortful than SIM participants, but there were no other differences in perceptions or non-verbal behavior. Implications for interviewers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the confidence‐accuracy relationship is now well established, confidence assessments are usually taken after the lineup identification procedure. Witnesses, however, often express confidence in their potential identification accuracy at other times, such as prior to seeing a lineup. Recent research has shown that these post‐identification confidence statements are not consistently interpreted in the manner witnesses intend them. The present studies compare interpretations of pre‐ and post‐identification confidence statements, and examine whether these interpretations are similarly affected by numerical statements and featural justifications. Across four studies, participants read eyewitness confidence statements and judged how confident and accurate they perceived witnesses to be. We manipulated expression type (verbal, numerical), statement type (confidence only, confidence paired with justification), and statement time (pre‐ and post‐identification). Pre‐identification confidence statements were perceived as less confident and less likely to be accurate. Unlike post‐identification statements, pre‐identification statements were not discounted when accompanied by featural justifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In empirical research, eyewitnesses typically report their confidence numerically (e.g., "I'm 90% sure"). In contrast, in the field, lineup administrators typically ask witnesses to explain their confidence verbally, in the witness' own words (e.g., "I'm quite sure"). Across three studies, we explored how evaluators assess verbal confidence statements: both freely reported and reported using a graded verbal scale. Results showed wide variability in the interpretation of both kinds of confidence statements. Even when evaluating seemingly very strong statements of verbal confidence (e.g., "completely certain") participants did not necessarily translate these statements into the strongest levels of numeric confidence. Variability in the interpretation of verbal confidence was particularly pronounced for low confidence statements. Moreover, participants preferred to report their confidence numerically rather than verbally. These results indicate the importance of documenting confidence verbatim at the time of the lineup so that the meaning of the witness' original confidence statement is preserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professionals supporting child witnesses are concerned with susceptibility to suggestion, that is, the impact of suggestive questioning on the information that children report. The Bonn test of statement suggestibility (BTSS; Endres, The Journal of Credibility Assessment and Witness Psychology, 1997, 1, 44–67; Endres et al., Psychologie der zeugenaussage, 1998) is a measure of interrogative suggestibility. It focuses on the interaction between the individual child and their environment, which may make a child vulnerable to suggestion. We aim to examine the psychometric properties of the BTSS tool by critiquing the scientific construction of the elements and the robustness of the measure. We conclude that the limited available research allows for a tentative conclusion of suitable levels of reliability and validity. However, we propose that the BTSS should not be administered in isolation to determine suggestibility but instead there should be a wider assessment completed with consideration of the broader aspects of the child's individual situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines legitimacy in the criminal courts from the perspective of witnesses, an under-researched setting and participant group. Based on interviews with witnesses and observations of court proceedings, the paper provides a framework for examining how witnesses engage with the courts, arguing that 'engagement' can be used as a lens through which to understand legitimacy. The findings suggest that witnesses often display weak levels of engagement with the court process, which is indicative of strain in the ongoing legitimacy 'dialogue' (Bottoms and Tankebe 2012) between citizens and the state. The implications of this are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Common law countries have long been implementing legal reforms that recognise the special needs of vulnerable witnesses. While these issues have been the subject of considerable scrutiny and debate in evidence law scholarship, this is not the case across Latin American legal systems. This article intends to contribute to such a debate. Chile recently enacted two special laws that significantly amended the general evidentiary regime in an effort to account for the challenges facing children and victims of sex crimes. This article provides an account and analysis of these recent legal reforms. We contend that while both laws address critical issues impacting specific classes of victims, the lawgivers failed to recognise that there is conflict between the rights of the victims and the rights of the accused, generating legal reforms that have unreasonably restricted the right of defendants to confront witnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jehovah's Witnesses – Disfellowshipping and shunning in the perspective of the rule of law: Jehovah's Witnesses (JW) are sometimes criticised for 'shunning' former congregants. This article focuses on the reproach of shunning and has a twofold purpose. Firstly: what is disfellowshipping and shunning about? For an adequate assessment, an analysis of the religious context and the policies JW applied therein is essential. Hereby sociological factors are taken into account as well. Secondly a legal study follows, in which voluntarily or involuntarily leaving the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses is viewed in the broader constitutional legal framework in which religious communities and individual believers each have their own legal position, both in their mutual relationship to each other and in relation to the society they are in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of evidence sessions for House of Commons public bill committees in 2007, including oral evidence from witnesses, was widely seen as a potentially significant improvement in informing scrutiny of legislation. Drawing on interviews with officials and witnesses, and on data gathered from Hansard for the 2017–2019 session, this article examines the selection and some of the characteristics of witnesses, witnesses' views of the process and how oral evidence is used in subsequent scrutiny of the legislation. While recognising that oral evidence does make an important contribution to scrutiny, the article notes that both the process as it currently exists, and the inevitable influence of political factors, mean that the impact of oral evidence on legislation remains very limited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]