Cctv is the answer to the trauma sufered by children inside the courtroom

scenario.

As an individual hears about the word CCTV, which means Closed Circuit
Television, it may come to mind that this system is used for security and survaillance
of premesis. To understand better what CCTV's are, a good defenition follows.
CCTV is 'the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific, limited set of
monitors' where specialized people watch and control what is happening. CCTV is
commonly used for surveillance is specific areas which indeed need monitoring to
reduce the risk of criminality, such as casinos, shops, banks, and the like
(wikipedia.org, 2007). However, this is not the only case where CCTV's are used.

In the world of criminal justice system, CCTV's are used in courts, not to surveil the
premesis only, but to help in the court proceedings, especially when children are
involved to testify. The following is a true story which happened in 1989 in New
York. A mother had murdered two of her children by slashing their troaths as she had
the impression that they were possesed by the devil. She also attempted to murder her
third child, but fortunately she did not succeed. At that time, the third child was 9
years old. When he was 10 years old, he had to tell the story and testify in court and
had to face his mother for the forst time after the incident. There was a request by the
prosecution as to let the boy to testiy via closed circuit television instead of face to
face, but this request was denied (Tobey, Goodman, Batten-Faunce, Orcutt and
Sachsenmaier, 1995:215). Because of this, the boy had to suffer double the trauma he
had to go through. For him, the court setting and procedures were new and he did not
understand what was happening. In addition to this, the child had suffered a traumatic
experience as he had to face and testify against his own mother who murdered his
other siblings in front of him.

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The same scenario can also be found where the case involves child sexual abuse. In
cases like these, it results in a traumatic experience for the child witness and victim to
take the stand to face the acused (Flin, Davies, & Tarrant, 1988; Goodman, Taub, et
al., 1992; Withcomb, Shapiro, & Stellwagen, 1985). The amount of child witnesses
has increased resulting in 'fueled concern for those children who must testify' (Tobey,
Goodman, Batten-Faunce, Orcutt and Sachsenmaier, 1995:215). In fact, this is the
reason why protective measures have been introduced as to remove the child witness
from direct exposure fromthe accused and in some other cases the courtroom itself. It
is of utmost importance for the witness to be physically present in court as there is the
need for the 'principle of orality', where all evidence needs to be delivered personally
and orally by a witness (Fyfe, 2001:113).

In many cases, the perpetrator of the abuse may have treathened or bribed the child to
keep secret what had happened, i.e. the abuse (Bander, Fein, & Bishop, 1981). For the
child to testify and reveil the secret in front of the defendant and other people, it can
result in a very fightening and tyring experience (Fyfe, 2001:113). In addition to this,
when the child sees the accused, memories and details about the negative experience
can be triggered in the childs mind even though the event had happened a while ago.
The stress experienced by a child when testifting in front of the perpatrator can have a
dual effect on the child victim. Firstly, there is the possibility that the child witness, as
a result of facing the accused, may experience psychological trauma. Secondly, if the
childern are intimidated or traumatised, the completeness and accuracy of their
testimony may be compromised. Libai (1969), was amongst the first to advocate
'child friendly courtrooms' (Tobey, Goodman, Batten-Faunce, Orcutt and
Sachsenmaier, 1995:218). 'Since then, protective measures such as screens, cloced-
circuit television, video taped testimony, or the introducion of hearsay have been
employed in a variety of states (Whitcomb, 1992. as cited in Tobey et al., 1995) and a
number of countries' (Cashmore 1992; Davies & Noon, 1991. as cited in Tobey et al.,
1995). With the aid of CCTV's, children are not required to testify in front of the
accused and also removes them from the overwhelming context of the courtroom
itself.

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In a typical closed curcuit arrangment, the child will be in a room adjacent to the court
room accompanied by a court officer and a support person if the child has one
(Courtwise, 2007). The children's testimony is 'simultaneously viewed on monitors in
the main courtroom' (Tobey, Goodman, Batten-Faunce, Orcutt and Sachsenmaier,
1995:218). When it comes to a two-way cloced curcit arrangment, the children have a
monitor from which they can view the courtroom proceedings. From the monitor, they
can only see the Magistrate or Judge, the prosecutor, the defense lawyer (Courtwise,
2007 ) without seeing the surroundings of the courtroom (Tobey et al., 1995).
According to Whitcomb (1992), by the end of 1989, '32 states statutorily authorised
judges to allow certain child witness to testify via closed curcuit television (Tobey et
al., 1995:218). In spite of this, 'prosecutors remain hesistant to call a child witness to
the stand or to employ protective measures when children testify' (Tobey et al.,
1995:218).

Davies and Noon (1991), conducted a study in England which was used to highlight
the advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of CCTV's (Tobey,
Goodman, Batten-Faunce, Orcutt and Sachsenmaier, 1995:220). One of the
advantages, which seems to be the main one, is that when CCTV is used during the
court proceedings, the children seemed to be more relaxed and less stressed. The main
disadvantage was 'the loss of immediacy and impact of the child's testimony on the
jury' (Tobey et al., 1995:220). Researchers who oppose the use of CCTV's state that
this kind of protective measures 'violated defendants rights, eroding the presumption
of innocence, and impeding the abilities of fact finders ta assess accurately the
credibility of child witnesses' (Tobey et al., 1995: 216). In fact, the use of CCTV can
directly or indirectly influence jurors. For example, an indirect effect would be 'when
a child whose testimony is more confident or consistent as a result of the less stressful
closed curcuit context and is consequently seen as more belivable by jurors' (Tobey et
al., 1995:216). A direct effect would be when CCTV is used for a court proceeding
and the jurors are biased against the defendant and so violating his or her rights. In
fact, in the case Coy v. Iowa (1988), the defendant was accused of sexually abusing
two 13 year old girls. To protect the witnesses and prevent an eye contact with betwen
the girls and the defendant, a screen was erected. 'Coy was convicted but then

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appealed, asserting that the use of the screen violated his Sixth and Fourtheenth
Aendaments rights. Regarding Sixth Amendament rights, use of measures that remove
the witness from face to face confrontation could interfere with jurors' abilities to
reach the truth when a child testifies' (Tobey et al., 1995: 219). When in comes to the
Fourtheenth Amendment, 'the use of a screen or closed curcuit television could be
unfair to the defendant. The defence in the Coy case reasoned that protective
measures would make the defendant appear guilty, hense biasing the jury against the
defendant by eroding presumption of innocence. The jury might infer that, if
protection is required for the witness, the defendant must be guilty' (Tobey et al.,
1995:219). The U.S. Supreme Court decided that defendant Coy was not guilty,
and during the process it was concluded that 'confrontation reduces the temptation for
the witness to lie and increases the jury's opportunity to determine if the witess is
lying' (Tobey et al., 1995:219). Another case is that of Maryland v. Craig (1990),
were the U.S. Supreme court was in favour of using the CCTV in a child sexual abuse
case since the child was so traumatised by the face to face confrontation with the
accused, that the witness was not able to communicate reasonably. This shows that
the use of CCTV's 'does not necessarily violate the defendant's Sixteenth
Amendament Right' (Tobey et al., 1995:219).

Once the child witnesses are involved in the judicial system, the problems which they
have to face are many, starting from that stressful experience when they have to
testify (Dent and Mellor, 1994:165). Clearly, with the use of CCTV, that traumatic
experience from which young children have to go through everytime they have to
testify in court, is somehow diminished. It is very important for the child to be
protected during and after the court hearings, and also psychologically helped and
treated as to recover from the traumatic experience which could ruin the rest of their
lifes.

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References

Bander, K. W., Fein, E., and Bishop, G. (1981). Evaluation of child-sexual-abuse

programs. In s. M. Sigori (Ed.), Handbook of clinical interviews in child sexual
abuse (345-376). New York: Free Press.

Batten-Faunce, J. M., Goodman, G.S., Orcutt, H. K., Sachsenmaier, T., and Tobey, A.
(1995). Blancing the Rights of Children and Defendants. Effects of Cloced-Curcuit
Television on Children's Accuracy and Jurors' Perceptions, 11, 214-242.

Cashmore, J. (1992). The use of close curcuit television for child witnesses in the
ACT. Sydney: Australian Law Reform Commission.

Davies, G., and Noon, E. (1991). An evaluation of the Live Link for child witnesses.
London: Home Office.

Dent, H. R., and Mellor, A. (1994). Preparation of the child Witness for Court, 3,
165-176.

Flin, R., Davies, G., and Tarrant, A. (1988). The child witness. Grant report to the
Scottish Home and Health Department, Edinbrugh.

Fyfe, N. R., (2001). Protecting Intimidated Witnesses. England: Ashgate Publishing

Limited.

Goodman, G. S., Taub, E. P., Jones , D. P. H., England, P., Port, L. K., Ruby, L., and
Prado, L. (1992). Testifying in criminal court: Emotional effects in child sexual

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assault victims. Monographs of the Society for Research on Child Development, 57
(5, Serial No. 229).

Whitcomb, D. (1992). When the victim is a child (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: National
Institute of Justice.

Withcomb, D., Shapiro, E. R., and Stellwagen, L. D., (1985). When the victim is a
child: Issues for judges and prosecutors. Washington, DC: National Institute of
Justice.

Online Sources

Courtwise (2007, December 12). Court support services for children and victims of
sexual assault.
http://www.courtwise.nsw.gov.au/Lawlink/victimsservices/ll_courtwise.nsf/pages/cou
rtwise_children_victims_sa

Wikipedia.org (2007, December 12). Cloced-Curcuit Television.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed-circuit_television