In-Court Versus Out-of-Court Testimonies: Children’s Experiences and Adults’ Assessments SARA LANDSTRO ¨ M * and PA ¨ R ANDERS GRANHAG Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden SUMMARY The study examined the effects of different presentation modes on child witnesses’ experiences and adults’ perception and assessments of the same witnesses. Child witnesses (N ¼ 108) were inter- viewed about an event that they had either experienced or imagined. Adult mock jurors (N ¼ 240) watched the children’s testimonies live, via two-way closed-circuit television (CCTV), or via a pre-recorded video. The results showed that the live observers perceived the children in more positive terms than did the two-way CCTV observers, who in turn perceived the children in more positive terms than did the video observers. Briefly, it seems as the more proximal the presentation mode, the more positive the observers’ perception. Somewhat in contrast to these results, a significantly smaller proportion of the children who testified on video stated that they were nervous, compared to the children who testified live or via two-way CCTV. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. For the last 20 years, systematic research about immediate and long-term psychological reactions to court participation has shown that children who are asked to testify in alleged sexual abuse cases are experiencing both pre- and post-trial anxiety, especially if they have to give their testimonies face to face to the defendant in open court (e.g. Goodman et al., 1992, 1998). The legal court system, established with adult defendants and witnesses in mind, does not easily accommodate children’s special needs. However, special courtroom procedures, such as one-way or two-way closed-circuit television (CCTV) or video recorded testimonies could assist children who are asked to stand trial (Davies, 1999). One-way CCTV was initially used in a much publicized case in the USA in 1990 (Maryland v. Craig, 1990). In this case, the court ruled that the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause, which provides criminal defendants with the right to confront witnesses, did not stand in conflict with the use of a one-way CCTV to present the testimony of an alleged child sexual abuse victim. The girl was suffering from severe emotional trauma and was reportedly unable to testify in the presence of the defendant. Hence, the court set the girl up in a separate room with the judge, the prosecutor, and the defence attorney so that the defendant and jury could watch her testify via a TV in the courtroom, but she could not watch them. From this date forth courts in well over 30 states in the USA are being asked to rule based on the use of innovative procedures, such as one- way CCTV, in individual cases. However, it should be noted that several states in the USA APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY Appl. Cognit. Psychol. 24: 941–955 (2010) Published online 2 September 2009 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/acp.1606 *Correspondence to: Sara Landstro ¨m, Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 500, SE 405 30, Go ¨teborg, Sweden. E-mail: sara.landstrom@psy.gu.se Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.