Stacia N Stolzenberg

Stacia N Stolzenberg
Arizona State University | ASU · School of Criminology and Criminal Justice

PhD

About

62
Publications
20,774
Reads
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867
Citations
Introduction
Stacia N. Stolzenberg is an applied developmental psychologist. Before joining the faculty at Arizona State University, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California. Dr. Stolzenberg's research centers on the application of developmental science to the field of child maltreatment in legal settings. The goal of her research is to improve how abuse allegations are investigated, thus protecting children and their families.
Additional affiliations
August 2015 - present
Arizona State University
Position
  • Professor (Assistant)
September 2012 - present
University of Southern California
Position
  • PostDoc Position
August 2014 - December 2014
University of Southern California
Position
  • Lecturer in Law
Description
  • Law 402: Law and Psychology

Publications

Publications (62)
Article
Full-text available
Little is known about how the dynamics of sexual abuse and disclosure are discussed in criminal court. We examined how attorneys ask child witnesses in sexual abuse cases (N = 72, 6–16 years of age) about their prior conversations, both with suspects and with disclosure recipients. Prosecutors’ questions were more open-ended than defense attorneys,...
Article
Full-text available
Children’s potential confusion between “ask” and “tell” can lead to misunderstandings when child witnesses are asked to report prior conversations. The verbs distinguish both between interrogating and informing and between requesting and commanding. Children’s understanding was examined using both field (i.e., Study 1) and laboratory (i.e., Studies...
Article
Full-text available
In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child solidified that “the child who is capable of forming his or her own views [has] the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child.” Involving children as research participants is one key method of ensuring that children’s voices are heard, especially in psych...
Article
As children’s testimonies of child sexual abuse (CSA) often lack concrete evidence to corroborate a child’s claims, attorneys devote a substantial amount of time to establishing a child as credible during the course of a trial. Examining 134 CSA victim testimonies for children aged 5–17 ( M = 12.48, SD = 3.34; 90% female), we explored how attorneys...
Article
Full-text available
The current study examined jurors’ questions to children in criminal trials assessing children’s allegations of sexual abuse, demonstrating a new avenue for studying how jurors think about, respond to, and assess evidence. We used qualitative content analysis to examine jurors’ questions to 134, 5- to 17-year-olds alleging sexual abuse in criminal...
Article
Full-text available
The accuracy of children’s memory, and the way they recall their memories, affects the perceived credibility of their reports. Defense attorneys may be motivated to attack the credibility of children’s reports by suggesting their memory of events is flawed, inaccurate, or influenced, while prosecutors may try to enhance children’s credibility by hi...
Article
Full-text available
In child sexual abuse (CSA) testimony, attorneys may ask children questions containing pronoun anaphora (e.g., “Where was your dad?” “What did he do?” he is a pronoun anaphora for referent, dad). To answer these questions, children must recall the pronoun’s referent and appropriate answer to the question. This may be too complex a cognitive task fo...
Article
In cases of alleged child sexual abuse, information about the timing of events is often needed. However, published developmental laboratory research has demonstrated that children struggle to provide accurate and reliable testimony about time and there is currently a lack of field research examining how attorneys actually question child witnesses a...
Article
Full-text available
This study examined the role of character evidence and other issues in criminal appeals of child sexual abuse (CSA) convictions. Character evidence includes other acts and character witnesses who testify to another’s reputation or opinion, which is offered to prove an individual’s propensities. Examining 168 appellate court opinions reviewing CSA c...
Article
Full-text available
Grooming is a common tactic among perpetrators of child sexual abuse (CSA). It is important that grooming is addressed in court to explain the unintuitive ways a child may act when they have been victims of abuse. The present study draws upon 134 transcripts of CSA criminal trials to establish how attorneys talk about grooming in court. Only 1.8% o...
Article
Regardless of compliance to coercion by an alleged perpetrator, child maltreatment is abuse in any form. However, the extent to which coercion is described as an obligation (mandatory compliance) or permission (optional compliance) is legally relevant. The present investigation examined how attorneys question children about coercion and how childre...
Article
Full-text available
Myths and misconceptions surrounding the nature of sexual assault play a role in shaping the perceptions of victims as credible and perpetrators as culpable. Defense attorneys often capitalize on myths in court as an element of their defense strategies. Researchers have established that myths about both rape generally, and child sexual abuse (CSA)...
Article
Full-text available
Child interviewers are often advised to avoid asking "How" questions, particularly with young children. However, children tend to answer "How" evaluative questions productively (e.g., “How did you feel?”). "How" evaluative questions are phrased as a "How" followed by an auxiliary verb (e.g., "did" or "was"), but so are "How" questions requesting in...
Article
Full-text available
Temporal information is often obtained from child witnesses using relative temporal judgments (e.g., “was it before or after …”) with recurring landmark events (e.g., their birthday). These judgments can be an issue because children have a “prospective bias” in which they preferentially look forward in time when using recurring landmark events. It...
Article
Full-text available
Children screened for sexual abuse are typically asked about touch, but their understanding of the meaning of touch has received little direct study. We asked 4- to 9-year-old children (N = 122; M = 6.00, SD = 1.49; 43% male) Yes-No questions (“Is the boy/girl touching the girl/boy?”/“Are the boy and girl touching?”) or Invitations (“What’s happeni...
Article
Full-text available
Children screened for sexual abuse are typically asked about touch, but their understanding of the meaning of touch has received little direct study. We asked 4- to 9-year-old children (N = 122; M = 6.00, SD = 1.49; 43% male) Yes-No questions (“Is the boy/girl touching the girl/boy?”/“Are the boy and girl touching?”) or Invitations (“What’s happeni...
Article
Both the kinds of exchanges, and the context under which children are questioned, may affect the quality of data. Yet, little is known about how developmental scientists communicate with children for research. Using manifest content analysis, the 3,119 manuscripts published in the top 20 developmental outlets in 2018 were coded for methodology, exa...
Article
Full-text available
The verbs ask and tell can be used both epistemically, referring to the flow of information, or deontically, referring to obligations through polite requests or commands. Some researchers suggest that children’s understanding of deontic modals emerges earlier than their understanding of epistemic modals, possibly because theory of mind is required...
Article
Full-text available
While researchers find that attorneys in CSA trials dedicate substantial time to questioning children about the plausibility of their reports, we know of no study to date that has assessed the types of plausibility issues attorneys raise, the relative frequency of different types, or if attorneys vary their plausibility questioning depending on cas...
Article
Researchers have established that rape myths shape perceptions of victims and perpetrators in criminal cases. Researchers have devoted less attention to exploring the impact of child sexual abuse (CSA) myths in court. While we know that jurors believe myths and misconceptions about the nature of CSA, no work has explored how these myths appear duri...
Article
Children may be asked questions with subtle and implied meanings. The present study examined whether, and under what conditions, 5- to 10-year-old children affirmed polysemous implicature questions that implied coaching, when in fact no coaching occurred. Participants (N = 161) were presented with vignettes about a transgression where the child dis...
Article
Full-text available
Child sexual abuse (CSA) cases involving recantation invoke concerns about children’s reliability. Expert testimony can help explain the complexities of these cases. Experts have historically relied on Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS), yet this is not science-based. In a CSA case involving recantation, how would evidence-based test...
Article
Full-text available
Since rape myths were codified in 1980 (Burt, 1980), scholars have shown that individuals who endorse rape myths perceive victims as less credible and more responsible for rape and perpetrators as less responsible. Studies also show that rape myths hinder successful adjudication of rape cases by influencing juries’ assessments of perpetrator guilt...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: Two studies examined 4-7-year-old maltreated children's "I don't know" (IDK) responses to wh- questions after receiving various interview instructions. Hypotheses: We predicted (H1) children would be less inclined to give IDK responses and more inclined to guess to color/number questions compared to other wh- questions; (H2) IDK instr...
Article
Full-text available
Researchers studying children’s reports of sexual abuse have focused on how questioners overtly assess coaching and truthfulness (e.g., “Did someone tell you what to say?”). Yet attorneys, and defense attorneys in particular, may be motivated to ask about suggestive influence and truthfulness in subtle ways, such as with implied meaning (e.g., “Did...
Article
Full-text available
In child sexual abuse cases, a central part of the child’s testimony is their description of the abuse episode. However, children often struggle to describe the body mechanics of abuse, and miscommunications are likely. The present study examined questions about the mechanics of abuse in trial transcripts (N = 63) to identify sources of miscommunic...
Article
Children’s developing understanding of language may influence their ability to accurately respond to questions inquiring about their event knowledge (i.e., Why and How Come questions), potentially creating misinterpretations in adult–child communication. The present study examined 120 5-, 7-, and 9-year-old’s accuracy in responding to Why and How C...
Article
Full-text available
The New Jersey Supreme Court held in New Jersey v. J.L.G. (2018) that experts can no longer explain to juries why sexually abused children might deny abuse. The Court was influenced by expert testimony that “methodologically superior” studies find lower rates of denial. Examining the studies in detail, we argue that the expert testimony was flawed...
Article
Full-text available
Child advocacy centers provide a child-friendly environment for the forensic interview and subsequent investigation of child victimization cases. However, very little research has examined the effects of burnout, secondary trauma, and organizational stressors on forensic interviewers. The present study examined the following research questions. To...
Article
Full-text available
Children’s ability to adequately describe clothing placement is essential to evaluating their allegations of sexual abuse. Intermediate clothing placement (partially removed clothing) may be difficult for young children to describe, requiring more detailed explanations to indicate the location of clothing (e.g., the clothes were pulled down to the...
Article
Full-text available
Questions revealing jurors questions and concerns about children's testimonies about alleged child sexual abuse. Qualitative analysis
Article
Full-text available
The present study assessed how attorneys questioned children in cases of child sexual abuse in the United States tried between 2005 and 2015. Trial testimonies (N = 134) of 5-17-year-olds (M = 12 years old) were coded for the linguistic form of attorneys’ questions and children’s subsequent responses. Three-fourths of all questions were closed-ende...
Preprint
Full-text available
As children’s testimonies of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) often lack concrete evidence to corroborate a child’s claims, attorneys devote a substantial amount of time to establishing a child as credible during the course of a trial. Examining 134 CSA victim testimonies for children aged 5-17 (M = 12.48, SD = 3.34; 90% female), we explored how attorneys...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Children are often hesitant to disclose transgressions, particularly when they feel implicated, and frequently remain reluctant until confronted with direct questions. Given the risks associated with direct questions, an important issue is how interviewers can encourage honesty through recall questions. Objective: The present study e...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Children alleging sexual abuse rarely exhibit emotion when disclosing, but they may be able to describe their subjective reactions to abuse if asked. Objective: This study examined the extent to which different types of questions in child sexual abuse interviews elicited subjective content, namely emotional reactions, cognitive content,...
Article
Full-text available
Children’s memories for their conversations are commonly explored in child abuse cases. In two studies, we examined conversational recall in 154 4- to 9-year-old children’s reports of an interaction with a stranger, some of whom were complicit in a transgression and were admonished to keep it a secret. Immediately afterwards, all children were inte...
Conference Paper
Asking children about conversations may both elicit allegations and aid in assessing allegations. Seventy-one children (5 - 9-year-olds) engaged in toy play with a confederate that ended in toy breakage, and were then questioned about their interaction. After one week, they were questioned by a second interviewer, who asked both free recall questio...
Article
This study examined the utility of two interview instructions designed to overcome children's reluctance to disclose transgressions: eliciting a promise from children to tell the truth and the putative confession (telling children that a suspect "told me everything that happened and wants you to tell the truth"). The key questions were whether the...
Article
Full-text available
Children’s descriptions of clothing placement and touching with respect to clothing are central to assessing child sexual abuse allegations. This study examined children’s ability to answer the types of questions attorneys and interviewers typically ask about clothing, using the most common spatial terms (on/off, outside/inside, over/under). Ninety...
Article
Full-text available
"Do you know" and "Do you remember" (DYK/R) questions explicitly ask whether one knows or remembers some information while implicitly asking for that information. This study examined how 104 4- to 9-year-old children testifying in child sexual abuse cases responded to DYK/R wh- and yes/no questions. When asked DYK/R questions containing an implicit...
Article
Full-text available
This study examined the effects of credibility-challenging questions (n = 2,729) on 62 5- to 17-year-olds’ testimony in child sexual abuse cases in Scotland by categorizing the type, source, and content of the credibility-challenging questions defence lawyers asked and assessing how children responded. Credibility-challenging questions comprised 14...
Article
Full-text available
“Do you know” and “Do you remember” (DYK/R) questions explicitly ask whether one knows or remembers some information while implicitly asking for that information. This study examined how 104 4- to 9-year-old children testifying in child sexual abuse cases responded to DYK/R wh- and yes/no questions. When asked DYK/R questions containing an implicit...
Article
Full-text available
This study examined the effects of secret instructions (distinguishing between good/bad secrets and encouraging disclosure of bad secrets) and yes/no questions (DID: “Did the toy break?” versus DYR: “Do you remember if the toy broke?”) on 262 maltreated and non-maltreated children's (age range 4–9 years) reports of a minor transgression. Over two-t...
Article
Full-text available
This study examined the effects of the hypothetical putative confession (telling children “What if I said that [the suspect] told me everything that happened and he said he wants you to tell the truth?”) and negatively valenced yes/no questions varying in their explicitness (“Did the [toy] break?” vs. “Did something bad happen to the [toy]?”) on tw...
Article
Purpose: The present study examined how children alleging sexual abuse are asked about clothing placement during abusive episodes, both in criminal trials and forensic interviews. The placement of clothing is of great importance, because it facilitates distinguishing abusive touch from non-abusive touch, as well as the severity of abuse when the to...
Article
Full-text available
Ross Cheit’s book The Witch-Hunt Narrative highlights the difficulties of prosecuting child sexual abuse. Drawing examples from a single case, Alex A., we examine the ways in which false acquittals of sexual abuse are likely to occur. First, prosecutors tend to question children in ways that undermine their productivity and credibility. Second, pro...
Article
Wh- prompts (what, how, why, who, when, where) vary widely in their specificity and accuracy, but differences among them have largely been ignored in research examining the productivity of different question-types in child testimony. We examined 120 6- to 12-year-olds’ criminal court testimony in child sexual abuse cases to compare the productivity...
Article
Full-text available
Child witnesses are often asked wh- prompts (what, how, why, who, when, where) in forensic interviews. However, little research has examined the ways in which children respond to different wh- prompts and no previous research has investigated productivity differences among wh- prompts in investigative interviews. This study examined the use and pro...
Article
Purpose: This study examined the effects of the putative confession (telling the child that an adult “told me everything that happened and he wants you to tell the truth”) on children’s disclosure of a minor transgression after questioning by their parents. Methods: Children (N = 188; 4 – 7-year-olds) played with a confederate, and while doing so,...
Article
Full-text available
This study examined the quality of interview instructions and rapport-building provided by prosecutors to 168 children aged 5-12 years testifying in child sexual abuse cases, preceding explicit questions about abuse allegations. Prosecutors failed to effectively administer key interview instructions, build rapport, or rely on open-ended narrative p...
Article
Full-text available
The present study examined whether a training model that focuses on consistent exposure to protocol procedure, self-evaluation, and intensive peer-review sessions could improve interviewers’ ability to adhere to best practices. Law students (N = 19) interviewed 5- to 10-year-old children on a weekly basis as part of a semester-long forensic child i...
Article
Full-text available
Prior research suggests that infelicitous choice of questions can significantly underestimate children’s actual abilities, independently of suggestiveness. One possibly difficult question type is indirect speech acts such as “Do you know…” questions (DYK, e.g., “Do you know where it happened?”). These questions directly ask if respondents know, whi...
Article
Full-text available
Evidence summarized in attorney's closing arguments of criminal child sexual abuse cases (N = 189) was coded to predict acquittal rates. Ten variables were significant bivariate predictors; five variables significant at p < .01 were entered into a multivariate model. Cases were likely to result in an acquittal when the defendant was not charged wit...
Article
Full-text available
The extensive eyewitness memory research literature has been restricted to memory for strangers. Although it is often assumed that eyewitnesses are more accurate identifying familiar than unfamiliar individuals, little is known about whether individuals' familiarity judgments are diagnostic of prior contact. Caucasian and Asian sophomores (N=139) i...
Article
Full-text available
This study explored the content of courtroom conversations about children's prior discussions regarding sexual abuse. Sixty felony child abuse trial transcripts including child testimony and reviewing court opinions were collected from the Court of Appeal and from court reporters. Information was obtained from under Section 288 of the California Pe...
Article
The extensive research literature on eyewitness memory has been restricted to memory for strangers. This study assessed how accurately people can recognize individuals they have casually seen before, and whether this determination is affected by the cross-race effect and exposure time to the test picture. One hundred and fifty seven Asian and non-H...

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