Assessing children’s ability to lie and conceal information when conducting statement validity assessment

The article discusses the problem of children's understanding of the phenomenon of deception and the ability to conceal information, the consideration of which is necessary when assessing the credibility of children's testimony in Statement Validity Assessment (SVA), which in some countries (for example, Germany and Switzerland) is the basis for forensic psychological examination of the credibility of testimony . The development of the ability to deceive and conceal information is currently associated with the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) . Therefore, today, the assessment of the credibility of testimony using SVA involves taking into account the results of research ToM of the last few decades . The expert should take into account both the abnormal development of ToM that occurs for example in children with autism spectrum disorders, and various social factors that have a positive or negative impact on the formation of ToM in children with normal development . Knowledge of the results of actual research on ToM, possession of diagnostic tools for assessment of development level of ToM seem to be now mandatory conditions for assessing the reliability of testimony .