IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v137y2022ics0190740922001244.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How does religiosity affect the richness of child forensic testimonies? Comparing the narratives of sexual abuse victims from three Jewish groups in Israel

Author

Listed:
  • Hindi, Inbal
  • Mordi, Hanin
  • Tener, Dafna
  • Katz, Carmit

Abstract

Forensic interviews with children have a vital role in promoting justice. Given that in most child sexual abuse incidents, there is no physical evidence or witnesses other than the children, their testimonies are crucial. Accordingly, children are required to provide detailed testimonies rich in forensically relevant details. The vast majority of studies on the richness of children's testimonies have examined the impact of gender and age on abuse characteristics. The current study spotlights the impact of children‘s religiosity on the richness of their testimonies. The sample comprised 234 forensic interviews with children belonging to three Jewish religious groups in Israel: secular, religious and ultra-Orthodox. All interviews were coded for both forensic question type (open, directive, option-posing questions) as well as the number of forensically relevant details the children provided (richness of testimony). The results indicate a correlation between the children’s religiosity and richness of testimony provided, with secular children providing richer testimonies and ultra-Orthodox children providing the fewest relevant details. The discussion addresses two clashes between the forensic interview and the child’s religious identity: using direct sexual terminology and disclosing child sexual abuse within a religious community. The key conclusion of the current study is the urgent need to better adapt forensic interviews to the context of the children’s lives to avoid adverse impacts for the involved children and their surroundings.

Suggested Citation

  • Hindi, Inbal & Mordi, Hanin & Tener, Dafna & Katz, Carmit, 2022. "How does religiosity affect the richness of child forensic testimonies? Comparing the narratives of sexual abuse victims from three Jewish groups in Israel," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:137:y:2022:i:c:s0190740922001244
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106488
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740922001244
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106488?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leung, Patrick & Curtis Jr., Russell L. & Mapp, Susan C., 2010. "Incidences of sexual contacts of children: Impacts of family characteristics and family structure from a national sample," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 650-656, May.
    2. Goodman, Yehuda & Witztum, Eliezer, 2002. "Cross-cultural encounters between careproviders: rabbis' referral letters to a psychiatric clinic in Israel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(8), pages 1309-1323, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Coleman-Brueckheimer, Kate & Spitzer, Joseph & Koffman, Jonathan, 2009. "Involvement of Rabbinic and communal authorities in decision-making by haredi Jews in the UK with breast cancer: An interpretative phenomenological analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 323-333, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:137:y:2022:i:c:s0190740922001244. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.