Assessment of Credibility of Testimony in Alleged Intimate Partner Violence: A Case Report

Structured assessment of witness credibility in intimate partner violence (IPV) allegations has been well established for child custody purposes, although it is far from being systematically implemented, particularly when child custody is not at stake. Unstructured approaches may follow general, long-accepted guidelines in legal proceedings but ignore empirical knowledge about perpetrators and victims produced by years of cumulative research. Furthermore, judgments are at a high risk of being compromised by characteristics of the informant, the listener, and the situation. An accurate analysis of witness credibility is harder to accomplish and more essential when there is no conclusive evidence or when the alleged perpetrator denies the accusations and has no known history of interpersonal violence. To not believe real victims or wrongfully convict innocent individuals are miscarriages of justice that might be prevented to a certain extent if we improve credibility assessment accuracy. In this case report, I used a structured method that demonstrates how a conclusion about the credibility of an alleged victim of IPV can contrast with the conclusion produced by a trial judge. A structured credibility assessment of the alleged victim could have produced a different judgment. Implications for individuals, their families, and the justice system are discussed.