Rachel Zajac
Biographic Data
| ID | 2749439 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Rachel Zajac |
| GIVEN NAMES | Rachel |
| FAMILY NAME | Zajac |
| SIGNATURE | ZAJAC R |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Otago |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3040-4906 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 0 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 0 |
Comparing children's and adults’ accounts of childhood injuries
Adults who allege childhood abuse often provide rich, detailed accounts, and many triers-of-fact treat those details as signs of reliability. Yet equating detail with reliability sits uneasily with what we know about memory. Adults' memories for unusual or traumatic events are typically sparse, detail fades with time, and when adults recall childhood, they draw on memories encoded with immature cognitive tools. Moreover, children themselves seldo…
Although Her Words Said No, Her Actions Spoke Otherwise”
Sexual assault laws in several jurisdictions require jurors to consider whether a defendant "reasonably believed" in consent. Using thematic analysis, we explored how potential jurors ( N = 50) make judgments about consent communication and the behaviors that, when informed by the reasonable belief standard, are perceived to communicate (non)consent. Two themes captured the perception that consent is something that is implied, while non-consent i…
Hits and Misses
Traditional contact tracing is one of the most powerful weapons people have in the battle against a pandemic, especially when vaccines do not yet exist or do not afford complete protection from infection. But the effectiveness of contact tracing hinges on its ability to find infected people quickly and obtain accurate information from them. Therefore, contact tracing inherits the challenges associated with the fallibilities of memory. Against thi…
Police Investigators’ Perceptions of the Challenges Associated With Interviewing Adult Sexual Assault Complainants
Although police organizations have devoted considerable effort to training investigators in evidence-based witness interviewing techniques, there is some suggestion that current practices do not meet the multifaceted requirements of sexual assault cases. Here, we assessed the specific challenges inherent in conducting interviews with adult sexual assault complainants, by conducting in-depth interviews with 21 experienced investigators from both A…
Contact Tracing
In the battle for control of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), we have few weapons. Yet contact tracing is among the most powerful. Contact tracing is the process by which public-health officials identify people, or contacts, who have been exposed to a person infected with a pathogen or another hazard. For all its power, though, contact tracing yields a variable level of success. One reason is that contact tracing’s ability to break the chain of…
Laypeople's beliefs about memory
Cognitive scientists have firmly established that memory is vulnerable to decay and distortion. Yet laypeople - who may be required to evaluate memory evidence as jurors - have shown less awareness of memory fallibility. Although we might expect laypeople's knowledge of memory to have improved over time, research has yet to explore this issue while accounting for possible age-related changes. We administered a modified version of the Beliefs abou…
Special measures in child sexual abuse cases
We explored Australian criminal justice professionals’ views on how well special measures for child complainants of sexual abuse are working in practice. We interviewed judges, prosecutors, defence counsel and witness assistance officers (n = 43) from four Australian jurisdictions, using a qualitative, non-directive approach. Overall, professionals perceived that special measures had improved evidence-giving processes for child complainants, but …
Attentional difficulty is a risk factor for interrogative suggestibility in preschoolers
International Developments and Practices in Investigative Interviewing and Interrogation
Since 2007, the New Zealand Police have undergone substantial reforms to investigative interviewing policy and practice. The reforms borrowed much from the developments in England and Wales associated with the introduction of the PEACE model (PEACE refers to the phases of all investigative interviews: Planning and preparation, Engage and explain, Account, Closure, and Evaluation; see Clarke and Milne, 2001). New Zealand, however, is distinct from…
Lawyers’ Strategies for Cross-Examining Rape Complainants
Despite widespread reforms to legislation and policy, rape complainants still find cross-examination distressing, demeaning and humiliating. We conducted a systematic and holistic examination of cross-examination strategies to discern: (1) the range of tactics that defence lawyers use to challenge rape complainants’ accounts; and (2) whether—and if so, how—the approaches used currently differ from those used prior to the reforms. We compared the …
Preparing children for cross-examination
Recent research has suggested that a comprehensive pretrial intervention utilizing a practice–feedback approach could help children to remain accurate in the face of challenging cross-examination questioning. We do not know, however, the extent to which this type of intervention remains effective as the delay between preparation intervention and cross-examination increases. To answer this question, 5- and 6-year olds (n = 88) and 9- and 10-year o…
The role of repeated interviewing in children's responses to cross‐examination‐style questioning
The negative effect of cross‐examination‐style questioning on children's accuracy is likely to be due to the complex and credibility‐challenging questions that characterize the interview. Given that cross‐examination occurs after at least one prior interview, however, it is equally possible that repeated interviewing per se impairs children's accuracy, and that the questions asked have little bearing on children's responses. To examine this issue…
Disorder in the courtroom? Child witnesses under cross-examination
Exploring the effects of age and delay on children's person identifications
We explored the effects of age and retention interval on several measures of children's person identification ability: verbal descriptions, lineup performance, and the success of a 'wildcard'--a photo of a silhouetted figure with a large question mark superimposed--in reducing children's tendency to choose from target-absent lineups. Children aged 5-7 years (N= 101) and 8-11 years (N= 109) were briefly exposed to an experimental confederate durin…
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Exploring the effects of age and delay on children's person identifications
We explored the effects of age and retention interval on several measures of children's person identification ability: verbal descriptions, lineup performance, and the success of a 'wildcard'--a photo of a silhouetted figure with a large question mark superimposed--in reducing children's tendency to choose from target-absent lineups. Children aged 5-7 years (N= 101) and 8-11 years (N= 109) were briefly exposed to an experimental confederate durin…
Disorder in the courtroom? Child witnesses under cross-examination
Preparing children for cross-examination
Recent research has suggested that a comprehensive pretrial intervention utilizing a practice–feedback approach could help children to remain accurate in the face of challenging cross-examination questioning. We do not know, however, the extent to which this type of intervention remains effective as the delay between preparation intervention and cross-examination increases. To answer this question, 5- and 6-year olds (n = 88) and 9- and 10-year o…
The role of repeated interviewing in children's responses to cross‐examination‐style questioning
The negative effect of cross‐examination‐style questioning on children's accuracy is likely to be due to the complex and credibility‐challenging questions that characterize the interview. Given that cross‐examination occurs after at least one prior interview, however, it is equally possible that repeated interviewing per se impairs children's accuracy, and that the questions asked have little bearing on children's responses. To examine this issue…
Lawyers’ Strategies for Cross-Examining Rape Complainants
Despite widespread reforms to legislation and policy, rape complainants still find cross-examination distressing, demeaning and humiliating. We conducted a systematic and holistic examination of cross-examination strategies to discern: (1) the range of tactics that defence lawyers use to challenge rape complainants’ accounts; and (2) whether—and if so, how—the approaches used currently differ from those used prior to the reforms. We compared the …
International Developments and Practices in Investigative Interviewing and Interrogation
Since 2007, the New Zealand Police have undergone substantial reforms to investigative interviewing policy and practice. The reforms borrowed much from the developments in England and Wales associated with the introduction of the PEACE model (PEACE refers to the phases of all investigative interviews: Planning and preparation, Engage and explain, Account, Closure, and Evaluation; see Clarke and Milne, 2001). New Zealand, however, is distinct from…
Laypeople's beliefs about memory
Cognitive scientists have firmly established that memory is vulnerable to decay and distortion. Yet laypeople - who may be required to evaluate memory evidence as jurors - have shown less awareness of memory fallibility. Although we might expect laypeople's knowledge of memory to have improved over time, research has yet to explore this issue while accounting for possible age-related changes. We administered a modified version of the Beliefs abou…
Special measures in child sexual abuse cases
We explored Australian criminal justice professionals’ views on how well special measures for child complainants of sexual abuse are working in practice. We interviewed judges, prosecutors, defence counsel and witness assistance officers (n = 43) from four Australian jurisdictions, using a qualitative, non-directive approach. Overall, professionals perceived that special measures had improved evidence-giving processes for child complainants, but …
Attentional difficulty is a risk factor for interrogative suggestibility in preschoolers
Contact Tracing
In the battle for control of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), we have few weapons. Yet contact tracing is among the most powerful. Contact tracing is the process by which public-health officials identify people, or contacts, who have been exposed to a person infected with a pathogen or another hazard. For all its power, though, contact tracing yields a variable level of success. One reason is that contact tracing’s ability to break the chain of…
Police Investigators’ Perceptions of the Challenges Associated With Interviewing Adult Sexual Assault Complainants
Although police organizations have devoted considerable effort to training investigators in evidence-based witness interviewing techniques, there is some suggestion that current practices do not meet the multifaceted requirements of sexual assault cases. Here, we assessed the specific challenges inherent in conducting interviews with adult sexual assault complainants, by conducting in-depth interviews with 21 experienced investigators from both A…
Hits and Misses
Traditional contact tracing is one of the most powerful weapons people have in the battle against a pandemic, especially when vaccines do not yet exist or do not afford complete protection from infection. But the effectiveness of contact tracing hinges on its ability to find infected people quickly and obtain accurate information from them. Therefore, contact tracing inherits the challenges associated with the fallibilities of memory. Against thi…
Although Her Words Said No, Her Actions Spoke Otherwise”
Sexual assault laws in several jurisdictions require jurors to consider whether a defendant "reasonably believed" in consent. Using thematic analysis, we explored how potential jurors ( N = 50) make judgments about consent communication and the behaviors that, when informed by the reasonable belief standard, are perceived to communicate (non)consent. Two themes captured the perception that consent is something that is implied, while non-consent i…
Comparing children's and adults’ accounts of childhood injuries
Adults who allege childhood abuse often provide rich, detailed accounts, and many triers-of-fact treat those details as signs of reliability. Yet equating detail with reliability sits uneasily with what we know about memory. Adults' memories for unusual or traumatic events are typically sparse, detail fades with time, and when adults recall childhood, they draw on memories encoded with immature cognitive tools. Moreover, children themselves seldo…
Psychology (12 works) · Law (6 works) · Medicine (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Deception detection and forensic psychology (5 works) · Developmental psychology (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · Child Abuse and Trauma (4 works) · Cognitive psychology (4 works) · Cross-examination (4 works)