ADMITTING VIDEOTAPED TESTIMONY IN CASES INVOLVING SEXUAL ABUSE OF A MINOR: A MODEL STATUTE

The sexual abuse of children has become a major social concern of our time. Many state legislatures have attempted to facilitate the prosecution and conviction of child molestors by enacting statutes that authorize the use of a child victim's videotaped testimony at trial. These statutes are deficient in two ways: they do not address all of the problems that result in low prosecution rates and they fail to meet constitutional requirements. This Article examines these deficiencies and presents a Model Act that effectively remedies them.