11 research outputs found

    Matters of Suggestibility, Memory and Time: Child Witnesses in Court and what really happened

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    Abstract: As a result of an increasing awareness of child sexual abuse over the last few decades, children have been admitted as court witnesses more frequently, yet there has been persistent wariness about the reliability of their testimony. Examining the interaction of legal rationales and paradigms of developmental psychology, it would appear that children are still frequently positioned as deficient and passive witnesses. Three tropes can be distinguished: 1. Children are positioned as unreliable containers of facts. 2. Children have proved to be irritable dispensers of information. 3. Children are volatile interactants. In this paper I will examine how the English legal system employs various special measures that are designed to comfort children's assumed needs in order to enable them to give the most detailed evidence possible while guaranteeing the admissibility of the way in which the evidence is gathered and presented in court. Taking a closer look at the concrete practice I will argue that special measures such as video recorded evidence or closed circuit television links relate to, mediate and create different time zones of veridicality. Hence as such these well intended mediators of children's voice develop their own ambiguous dynamic when they operate and perform at the different stages of the legal procedure and thereby resonate with varying assumptions about how material presences and absences, temporal immediacy or mediatedness bolster or discredit the credibility of a piece of evidence. My analysis will unfold around the specific case of video recorded evidence. Using courtroom observations and data from interviews with legal professionals, I will follow the trajectory of the video from its planning and recording by the police to its presentation in court. Inspired by the work of ISABELLE STENGERS and BRUNO LATOUR, and drawing on discourse analytical tools, I will show that the collision of the different time zones of veridicality creates circumstances under which the video itself can become an ambiguous agent and ultimately a fanciful witness

    Editorial: Research as practice: on critical methodologies

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    Isabelle Stengers, perhaps unwittingly, perhaps knowingly, echoes a theme of the work of American philosopher Stanley Cavell (1995, p. 136) when she invites in the first edition of the journal Subjectivity, her readers to join her in slowing down, in hesitating, pausing, taking a breath in the face of our own endeavours to ‘produce subjectivity’ (Stengers, 2008, p. 49). Cavell’s gesture of hesitation is similarly evocative and provocative. Where Stengers pushes for an approach which betrays or reveals rather than denounces, Cavell suggests that in the face of apparently constitutive philosophical oppositions, in stead of seeking to decide we should seek to dismantle. Betrayal rather than denunciation; revelation rather than condemnation; dismantling rather than deciding. Alluring and seductive ideas but the question is begged: where is the critical edge? This volume grapples with this question. It hesitates in the face of the complex relations between theory, research methods and practice, and the persons and places, or milieus, they are embedded in. It represents an attempt to revive the question as to what it means to do psychology critically, or for that matter, to practice critical theory

    Cross-examining suggestibility: memory, childhood, expertise

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    Initially a central topic for psychology, suggestibility has been forgotten, rediscovered, evaded definition, sabotaged experimentation and persistently triggers epistemological short-circuits when interconnecting psychological questions of memory, childhood and scientificity, with concrete legal issues of child witnesses' credibility, the disclosure of sexual abuse and psychological expertise in courts of law. The aim of this study is to trace suggestibility through history, theory, research and practice, and to explore its efficacy at the intersection of psychology and law, by examining and comparing the. concrete case of child witness practice in England and Germany. Taking a transdisciplinary approach the study draws on two interrelated sources of 'data' combining historical, theoretical and research literature with the analysis of empirical data. A genealogy if theory and research is combined with the results of reflexive interviews, conducted in England and Germany with practitioners from all those professions involved in creating, applying or dealing with knowledge about child witnesses and suggestibility: judges, prosecutors, lawyers, police officers, psychologists (researchers, experts) and social workers. Drawing on the work of G. Deleuze and 1. Stengers this study shows how practical tensions around reliable witnesses, evidence and expertise merge pragmatically with theoretical movements employed to adjust the discipline, thereby causing frictions and voids. In this sense suggestibility provides a liminal resource: It transgresses disciplinary boundaries and pervades pragmatic and theoretical, global and personal, historical and actual considerations, creating voids that allow us to reconsider the pragmatics of change and to redefine the issue of critical impact, as well as to reformulate the problem of child witness practice and children's suggestibility. The study hopes to make a concrete contribution to facilitating the just prosecution of sexual abuse by adding transparency to the complex and at times unhelpfully polarised field of child witness practice. By exploring the 'pragmatics of change' the study furthermore hopes to give an unsettling and productive impetus to theoretical debates within critical approaches to psychology

    Introduction to the Special Issue on Liminal Hotspots

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    This article introduces a special issue of Theory and Psychology on liminal hotspots. A liminal hotspot is an occasion during which people feel they are caught suspended in the circumstances of a transition that has become permanent. The liminal experiences of ambiguity and uncertainty that are typically at play in transitional circumstances acquire an enduring quality that can be described as a “hotspot”. Liminal hotspots are characterized by dynamics of paradox, paralysis, and polarization, but they also intensify the potential for pattern shift. The origins of the concept are described followed by an overview of the contributions to this special issue

    Exploring the transdisciplinary trajectory of suggestibility

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    Traditionally considered a deficiency in will power and rationality, suggestibility has proven a troublesome concept for psychology. It was forgotten, rediscovered, denounced, undermined experimentation and recently became the ambiguous issue at the centre of concern about child witness' credibility in sexual abuse cases. This paper traces the history of suggestibility to show how it raises the 'paradox of the psychosocial'. Drawing on the work of Deleuze and Stengers, and on interviews with legal practitioners, this paper demonstrates how suggestibility carries this paradox into theory, research and legal practice. It thereby opens up a transdisciplinary perspective, allowing for questions of power and knowledge to be asked as performative questions. In the spirit of a process-centred ontology for psychology, I argue that suggestibility constitutes a 'rhythm of problematization', a folding, giving a subversive insight into dynamics of subjectification and application, and offering new perspectives towards issues of children's credibility and protection

    Problemas de memoria, tiempo y sugestionabilidad: niños testificando en la corte y qué ocurrió realmente

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    Infolge des in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten gestiegenen Bewusstseins hinsichtlich des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern werden Kinder immer häufiger als Zeugen vor Gericht zugelassen. Zugleich bestehen allerdings weiterhin grundsätzliche Zweifel an der Zuverlässigkeit kindlicher Zeugenaussagen. Betrachtet man die Position kindlicher Zeugen im Kontext der rechtlichen Grundlagen und der relevanten Paradigmen der Entwicklungspsychologie, so scheint es, dass Kinder nach wie vor als unzulängliche, passive Zeugen positioniert sind. In diesem Zusammenhang lassen sich drei zentrale Tropen identifizieren: 1. Kinder werden als unzuverlässige Behälter ("unreliable containers") von Fakten positioniert. 2. Kinder haben sich als irritierbare Verteiler ("irritable dispensers") von Informationen erwiesen. 3. Kinder sind unbeständige Interaktionspartner ("volatile interactants"). In diesem Artikel werde ich untersuchen, welche Maßnahmen das englische Rechtssystem ergreift, um den vermeintlichen Defiziten kindlicher Zeugen entgegenzukommen, dabei aber zugleich sicherzustellen, dass die Genauigkeit und Zulässigkeit der von ihnen gelieferten Aussage gewährleistet bleibt. Meine Analyse bezieht sich vor allem auf die spezielle Praxis videoaufgezeichneter Zeugenaussagen. Mit Hilfe von Verhandlungsbeobachtungen und Transkripten von Interviews mit Polizeibeamten und Juristen werde ich den Weg des Videos von seiner Planung und Aufzeichnung durch die Polizei bis zu seiner Vorführung vor Gericht nachzeichnen. Die Analyse ist inspiriert von den Arbeiten von Isabelle STENGERS und Bruno LATOUR und bedient sich eines im weitesten Sinne diskursanalytischen Instrumentariums. Ich werde zeigen, dass die Kollision unterschiedlicher Zeitzonen der Wahrhaftigkeit ("time zones of veridicality") dazu führen kann, dass das Video selbst zu einem mehrdeutigen Akteur und im Kontext dessen sogar zu einem fantasierenden Zeugen wird. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0701145As a result of an increasing awareness of child abuse over the last few decades, children have been admitted as court witnesses more frequently, yet there has been persistent wariness about the reliability of their testimony. Examining the interaction of legal rationales and paradigms of developmental psychology, it would appear that children are still frequently positioned as deficient and passive witnesses. Three tropes can be distinguished: 1. Children are positioned as unreliable containers of facts. 2. Children have proved to be irritable dispensers of information. 3. Children are volatile interactants. In this paper I will examine how the English legal system employs special measures that are designed to manage children's apparent deficiencies while guaranteeing the accuracy and admissibility of their evidence. My analysis unfolds around the specific case of video recorded evidence. Using courtroom observations and data from interviews with legal professionals, I will follow the trajectory of the video from its planning and recording by the police to its presentation in court. Inspired by the work of Isabelle STENGERS and Bruno LATOUR, and drawing on discourse analytical tools, I will show that the collision of the different time zones of veridicality creates circumstances under which the video itself can become an ambiguous agent and ultimately a fanciful witness. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0701145En las últimas décadas, como resultado de una creciente conciencia en torno al abuso infantil, se han admitido con mayor frecuencia las testificaciones de niños en las cortes, si bien ha habido una constante cautela por la confiabilidad de su testimonio. Examinando la interacción de los fundamentos legales y los paradigmas de la psicología del desarrollo, parecería que todavía se piensa que los niños son testigos deficientes y pasivos. Se pueden distinguir tres tropos: 1. Se posiciona a los niños como recipientes no confiables de hechos; 2. los niños han probado ser irritables distribuidores de información. 3. Los niños son interlocutores dispersos. En este artículo examinaré cómo el sistema legal inglés emplea ciertas medidas destinadas a manejar las aparentes deficiencias de los niños con el fin de garantizar la precisión y admisibilidad de su evidencia. Mi análisis se extiende alrededor del caso específico de evidencia video-grabada. Usando observaciones de la corte y datos de entrevistas con profesionales de la ley, seguiré la trayectoria del video desde su planeación y grabación por la policía hasta su presentación en la corte. Inspirado en el trabajo de Isabelle STENGERS y Bruno LATOUR, y esbozando desde herramientas analíticas del discurso, mostraré que el encuentro de las diferentes temporalidades de veridicción crea circunstancias bajo las cuales el video en sí mismo puede ser un agente ambiguo y finalmente un testigo imaginario. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs070114

    Matters of Suggestibility, Memory and Time: Child Witnesses in Court and What Really Happened

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    Infolge des in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten gestiegenen Bewusstseins hinsichtlich des sexuellen Missbrauchs von Kindern werden Kinder immer häufiger als Zeugen vor Gericht zugelassen. Zugleich bestehen allerdings weiterhin grundsätzliche Zweifel an der Zuverlässigkeit kindlicher Zeugenaussagen. Betrachtet man die Position kindlicher Zeugen im Kontext der rechtlichen Grundlagen und der relevanten Paradigmen der Entwicklungspsychologie, so scheint es, dass Kinder nach wie vor als unzulängliche, passive Zeugen positioniert sind. In diesem Zusammenhang lassen sich drei zentrale Tropen identifizieren: 1. Kinder werden als unzuverlässige Behälter ("unreliable containers") von Fakten positioniert. 2. Kinder haben sich als irritierbare Verteiler ("irritable dispensers") von Informationen erwiesen. 3. Kinder sind unbeständige Interaktionspartner ("volatile interactants"). In diesem Artikel werde ich untersuchen, welche Maßnahmen das englische Rechtssystem ergreift, um den vermeintlichen Defiziten kindlicher Zeugen entgegenzukommen, dabei aber zugleich sicherzustellen, dass die Genauigkeit und Zulässigkeit der von ihnen gelieferten Aussage gewährleistet bleibt. Meine Analyse bezieht sich vor allem auf die spezielle Praxis videoaufgezeichneter Zeugenaussagen. Mit Hilfe von Verhandlungsbeobachtungen und Transkripten von Interviews mit Polizeibeamten und Juristen werde ich den Weg des Videos von seiner Planung und Aufzeichnung durch die Polizei bis zu seiner Vorführung vor Gericht nachzeichnen. Die Analyse ist inspiriert von den Arbeiten von Isabelle STENGERS und Bruno LATOUR und bedient sich eines im weitesten Sinne diskursanalytischen Instrumentariums. Ich werde zeigen, dass die Kollision unterschiedlicher Zeitzonen der Wahrhaftigkeit ("time zones of veridicality") dazu führen kann, dass das Video selbst zu einem mehrdeutigen Akteur und im Kontext dessen sogar zu einem fantasierenden Zeugen wird.As a result of an increasing awareness of child abuse over the last few decades, children have been admitted as court witnesses more frequently, yet there has been persistent wariness about the reliability of their testimony. Examining the interaction of legal rationales and paradigms of developmental psychology, it would appear that children are still frequently positioned as deficient and passive witnesses. Three tropes can be distinguished: 1. Children are positioned as unreliable containers of facts. 2. Children have proved to be irritable dispensers of information. 3. Children are volatile interactants. In this paper I will examine how the English legal system employs special measures that are designed to manage children's apparent deficiencies while guaranteeing the accuracy and admissibility of their evidence. My analysis unfolds around the specific case of video recorded evidence. Using courtroom observations and data from interviews with legal professionals, I will follow the trajectory of the video from its planning and recording by the police to its presentation in court. Inspired by the work of Isabelle STENGERS and Bruno LATOUR, and drawing on discourse analytical tools, I will show that the collision of the different time zones of veridicality creates circumstances under which the video itself can become an ambiguous agent and ultimately a fanciful witness.En las últimas décadas, como resultado de una creciente conciencia en torno al abuso infantil, se han admitido con mayor frecuencia las testificaciones de niños en las cortes, si bien ha habido una constante cautela por la confiabilidad de su testimonio. Examinando la interacción de los fundamentos legales y los paradigmas de la psicología del desarrollo, parecería que todavía se piensa que los niños son testigos deficientes y pasivos. Se pueden distinguir tres tropos: 1. Se posiciona a los niños como recipientes no confiables de hechos; 2. los niños han probado ser irritables distribuidores de información. 3. Los niños son interlocutores dispersos. En este artículo examinaré cómo el sistema legal inglés emplea ciertas medidas destinadas a manejar las aparentes deficiencias de los niños con el fin de garantizar la precisión y admisibilidad de su evidencia. Mi análisis se extiende alrededor del caso específico de evidencia video-grabada. Usando observaciones de la corte y datos de entrevistas con profesionales de la ley, seguiré la trayectoria del video desde su planeación y grabación por la policía hasta su presentación en la corte. Inspirado en el trabajo de Isabelle STENGERS y Bruno LATOUR, y esbozando desde herramientas analíticas del discurso, mostraré que el encuentro de las diferentes temporalidades de veridicción crea circunstancias bajo las cuales el video en sí mismo puede ser un agente ambiguo y finalmente un testigo imaginario

    Managing suspended transition in medicine and law: Liminal hotspots as resources for change

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    This article explores occasions when professionals in law enforcement and medicine find themselves trapped amidst the paradoxical demands of diagnostic/investigative practice. By juxtaposing research into the experiences of police officers charged with interviewing children who are the alleged victims of sexual abuse, and clinicians tasked with diagnosing and managing contested cases of thyroid disease, the paper develops an understanding of such practice paradoxes as occasions of stalled transition, or liminal hotspots. Drawing on a process theoretical understanding of liminality, the analysis explores the personal, experiential, and affective efficacy of the epistemological framework that both practices share. While liminal hotspots denote paradox stalemates, the paper argues that they are also responsible for recurrent instants of temporary affective unsettledness, and as such can provoke novel thinking and agency towards innovation in practice areas notoriously resistant to change and improvement. Systematizing this property could turn them into resources for change
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