Recently, there is a tendency for juvenile crimes to become more violent and younger, and sexual crimes against children and adolescents also tend to increase. Also, according to “2021 Child Abuse Statistics,” reports of child abuse and cases judged as child abuse also increased. These two major trends related to crimes against children and adolescents inevitably cause an increase in the number of investigations of children and adolescents, such as victims, witnesses (references), and suspects in criminal procedures.
In particular, the increase in the number of investigations related to abuse has become a new issue in relation to the overload of investigation agencies and expertise in investigating abuse cases. This is because, in the case of the age of abused children, the proportion of children under the age of majority occupies the majority. The problem of the absence of objective evidence and the functioning of the victim's statement as the only evidence in sex crimes against children or persons with intellectual disabilities is the same in these cases of abuse. The question of whether persons with intellectual disabilities have the ability to give accurate testimony is being raised in the same way.
In the case of children, cognitive development is in progress, and in the case of people with intellectual disabilities, their cognitive ability is reduced, so their cognitive ability is limited compared to adults. Therefore, in the process of investigation or trial, the memories of children and persons with intellectual disabilities are inaccurate and highly suggestive, so there is a possibility that statements will be distorted. Clinical and counseling psychological research on statement ability and credibility is also being published steadily, and various systems such as the statement analyst system based on it have been reflected in criminal procedures. However, there is an aspect that it is difficult to say that academic research related to judgment of the reliability of statements still fully supports changes in the actual system. Therefore, in this study, as a supplementary study to the clinical and counseling perspectives that have been mainly conducted in the past, research and analysis of the neurological characteristics of children and people with disabilities related to the credibility of statements will be conducted. In addition, the sociocultural context and reliability judgment of legal statements of children and persons with disabilities are analyzed to predict the possibility of various other daily environmental and social influences in which the interviewer is placed, and the sociocultural influence relationship in the interview process of the investigators.