Children and the Law: The Essential Readings

Growing awareness of children’s involvement in crime, whether as victims, witnesses or perpetrators, has given rise to new research into how to treat children in legal settings. This volume brings together thirteen of the most significant recent papers, offering an overview of current knowledge. The readings illustrate important issues in five key areas: child victimisation, the reliability of children’s accounts, truth and lies, children and the legal system, and children as perpetrators. Taken together, they encourage a multi-faceted approach, combining knowledge from biological, social, cognitive and developmental psychology in an interdisciplinary context. Each paper is introduced and contextualised by the editor, and suggestions for additional reading enable further study.