The court testimony of minors
Testifying in court can be highly challenging and demanding for children and teenagers who witness or are victims of a crime. Certain young people, especially those in care under the Youth Protection Act (YPA), have specific needs and may need to testify on more than one occasion. Despite the number of children and young people being called to testify, few studies have documented the contribution of preparation programs to the proper support of youth at the judicial level. Focusing on a sample of youth benefiting from a court preparation program, this study documents their judicial experience and assesses the outcome of this preparation program, which aims to reduce youths’ fears and worries. The results indicate that girls are more fearful of testifying than boys. The results also show that 44.1 % of program participants who have been prepared to testify have had to testify in court, with a statistically significant decrease in self-reported fear levels being observed in the Fears of Court Questionnaire (Centre for Children and Families in the Justice System, 2002) between the pre-test and the end of the intervention. These findings highlight the importance of preparing youth who are asked to testify. Further research is needed to document the additional impacts of these programs.