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Resumen:
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A proposed protocol for evaluating the statements and identifications made by the potential victims of crimes is presented in this paper. The protocol, called HELPT, is part of a holistic approach to evaluating the testimony that takes into account all of the possible factors of influence: encoding, retention and recovery. Among these factors, the following will be relevant: a) the ability of victims to testify, as well as cognitive processes of attention, perception, memory and language; b) the specific characteristics of the offence; c) the history of the event and its consequences; d) other factors that might affect the quality and accuracy of the statements and identifications, such as the number of times the victim had to tell what happened, the methods used to obtain the story and possibilities of suggestion. The method includes specific procedures for exhaustive analysis of the testimonies and for the formulation and testing of hypotheses (Scott & Manzanero, 2015), the evaluation of the competence to testify (Contreras, Silva, & Manzanero, 2015) and the obtaining of statements (González, Muñoz, Sotoca, & Manzanero, 2013).
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