Poster #149 - How do English and Spanish Speakers Perceive Non-native Children and Adolescents Testifying via an Interpreter?

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

For many children and adolescents, access to justice depends on their meaningful participation in the legal system, usually by testifying in courts. Fact finders (e.g., jurors) often rely on their perceptions of such testimony when determining verdicts. This presents a unique challenge for youth who are not fluent in the jurisdiction's dominant language to understand questions and provide detailed testimony. In these cases, language interpreters will likely be assigned. Language interpreters will increasingly be used in our globalized world. Given the high stakes of investigative interviews with young witnesses, it is imperative to understand the array of factors that affect fact finders' perceptions and their verdicts, including the presence of language interpreters.
The current research examined adults' perceptions of youth testifying via a language interpreter. English-speaking (N =302) adults and (N = 464) Spanish-speaking adults listened to two investigative interviews, one with a 7-year-old child and one with a 14-year-old adolescent. Each participant was randomly assigned to an Interpreter Presence condition, with half listening to an interview in a language they did not speak or understand (i.e., Spanish or English) mediated by an interpreter and half to an interview in their native language (i.e., English or Spanish). Then, participants answered items regarding their perceptions of the witness, the interviewer, and the interview as a whole, followed by a dichotomous verdict question inquiring whether they found the alleged perpetrator guilty or not guilty.
Analyses involved 2 (Age: child v. adolescent) x 2 (Interpreter: Present v. Absent) analyses of variance with Age varied within subjects and Interpreter between subjects. Logistic regression analyses examined the effect of the conditions on the guilty verdict. Particularly negative perceptions were expected when mock jurors evaluated the adolescent's testimony compared to the child's testimony. Given children's more limited cognitive and language abilities compared to adolescents, participants may view an adolescent as having more understanding of the questions and their interview as more age-appropriate than the child's.
Differences between the interpreter present and absent conditions pointed to mock jurors' favorable perceptions of the interpreter-mediated interviews, especially for the adolescent. As expected, adults perceived the adolescent to be more likely to have understood the questions than the child, the interview with the adolescent as more age-appropriate than with the child, and the interviewer as more likely to have confused the child than the adolescent.
Findings indicated that listening to youth testifying via language interpreters led to different perceptions of the young witness and her testimony as well. For example, youth who testified via a language interpreter were rated as calmer and more comfortable with the interviewer than in typical interviews. The interpreter's presence did not lead to differences in the guilty verdict. Nonetheless, both English and Spanish speakers were more likely to believe that the adolescent's perpetrator was guilty than the child's perpetrator.
Interpreter-mediated interviews will be increasingly common in the coming years. Hence, it is vital to understand how people perceive such interviews and whether adults have biases concerning non-native youth who testify via language interpreters.

Authors

• Ana Karen Espinosa Becerra, Université d'Ottawa
  Presenting Author

• Lindsay C Malloy, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

• Lillian A Rodriguez Steen, The College of Saint Rose