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40 U. Miami L. Rev. 245 (1985-1986)
The Competency Requirement for the Child Victim of Sexual Abuse: Must We Abandon It

handle is hein.journals/umialr40 and id is 259 raw text is: The Competency Requirement For The Child Victim Of Sexual Abuse: Must We Abandon It? I. INTRODUCTION ........ ...... .. .................................. . 245 II. H ISTORICAL BACKGROUND .. .. ............................ ........... 248 II . STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS ............................................... 252 IV. APPLICATION OF THE DIFFERENT STATUTORY SCHEMES ........................ 257 A. The Substantive Impact ............................................ 257 B . Procedural Issues .................................................. 262 1. THE VOIR DIRE ...................... 6......... .................. 2 2. TH E OATH ...................................................... 266 a. Jurisdictions Not Patterned After the Federal Rule ........... 266 b. Jurisdictions Patterned After the Federal Rule ................ 269 3. TIMING OF OBJECTIONS ........................................... 270 4. PROCEDURE ON REVIEW .......................................... 271 V. LEGISLATIVE TRENDS IN THE LAW ......................................... 273 VI. PROPOSALS FOR REFORMING THE COMPETENCY REQUIREMENT .................. 278 V II. C ONCLUSION ............................................................ 283 I. INTRODUCTION The issue of witness competency never arises in an average criminal trial. In child sexual abuse' trials, however, witness com- petency is often a central issue. The only eyewitness is usually a child of tender years, therefore the child's testimony is usually crit- ical to the state's case against the aleged abuser.2 As one commen- tator observed, [i]n abuse cases, the eyewitness testimony of the youngster involved may be the only direct link between the child and the offender; any other evidence is generally circumstantial physical evidence that indicates only that abuse was committed.' In child sexual abuse trials, as in all criminal trials, there are two competing interests: the interest of the state to convict guilty 1. This comment uses the term sexual abuse as a generic term encompassing allega- tions of any type of sexual activity with children by adults. This category includes various crimes: incest, sodomy, indecent liberties, molestation, sexual intercourse with an underaged child, oral or anal sex, indecent assault and lewd and lascivious acts. For a comprehensive analysis of what each state defines as criminal sexual activity with children, see Kocen & Bulkley, Analysis of Criminal Child Sex Offense Statutes, in CHILD SRxUAL ABUSE AND Ts LAW 1 (J. Bulkley ed. 1984). 2. State v. Gilbert, 109 Wis. 2d 501, 516, 326 N.W.2d 744, 751 (1982). 3. Id. (citing Meyers, When Children Take the Stand, 11:1 STUDENT LAW. 14, 15 (Sept. 1982)).