Thomas D. Lyon

Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Chair in Law and Psychology

Email: tlyon@law.usc.edu
Telephone: (213) 740-0142
Fax: (213) 740-5502
699 Exposition Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90089-0074 USA Room: 408
Personal Website: Link
SSRN Author Page: Link

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Last Updated: September 1, 2020

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Thomas D. Lyon's goal is to identify the most productive means of questioning children about abuse and violence. He is the Judge Edward J. and Ruey L. Guirado Chair in Law and Psychology at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. He teaches Evidence and the Child Interviewing Practicum. Lyon directs the USC Child Interviewing Lab, which conducts research and forensic interviews with children who have been victims of maltreatment or who have witnessed violence.

Lyon is past-president of the American Psychological Association’s Section on Child Maltreatment (Division 37) and a former member of the Board of Directors of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. He has published more than 100 papers in law reviews, psychology journals and books; has authored or co-authored more than 150 research presentations at psychology and law conferences; and has conducted more than 280 trainings with judges, attorneys, law professors, social workers, psychologists and reporters. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Justice, the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, the California Endowment, and the Haynes Foundation.

A magna cum laude graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School, Lyon received his PhD. in developmental psychology from Stanford University. He was an attorney for the Children’s Services Division of the Los Angeles County Counsel and a research associate at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center prior to joining USC Law in 1995.

A. Publications in Peer-reviewed Journals

• 78. Gongola, J. Quas, J.A., Clark, S.E., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Adults' difficulties in identifying concealment among children interviewed with the putative confession instruction. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 

• 77. Klemfuss, J.Z., McWilliams, K., Henderson, H.M., Olaguez, A.P., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Order of Encoding Predicts Young Children’s Responses to Sequencing Questions. Cognitive Development.

• 76. Wylie, B., Stolzenberg, S.N., McWiliams, K., Evans, A.D., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Young children's ability to describe intermediate clothing placement. Child Maltreatment. 

• 75. Kumar, M., Kim, S. H., Lord, C., Lyon, T. D., & Narayanan, S. (2020). Leveraging Linguistic Context in Dyadic Interactions to Improve Automatic Speech Recognition for Children. Computer Speech & Language, 101101. 

• 74. Fessinger, M.L.S., McWilliams, K., Bakth, F.N., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Setting the ground rules: Use and practice of ground rules in child forensic interviews. Child Maltreatment. 

• 73. Henderson, H.M., Russo, N., & Lyon, T.D. (2020). Forensic interviewers’ difficulty with invitations: Faux invitations and negative recasting. Child Maltreatment, 25, 363-372. 

• 72. Bruer, K.C., Zanette, S., Ding, X.P., Lyon, T.D., & Lee, K. (2020). Identifying liars through automatic decoding of children’s facial expressions. Child Development, 91, e995-e1011. 

• 71. Evans, A.D. & Lyon, T.D, (in press 2019). The effects of the putative confession and evidence presentation on maltreated and non-maltreated 9- to 12-year-olds’ coached concealment of a minor transgression. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

• 70. Williams, S., McWilliams, K., & Lyon, T.D., (in press 2019). Children’s concealment of a minor transgression: The role of age, maltreatment, and executive functioning.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

• 69. Dickerson, K., Lyon, T.D., & Quas, J.A., (in press 2019). The role of kinship and siblings in young children’s placement preferences. Journal of Interpersonal Violence

• 68. McWilliams, K., Stolzenberg, S.N., Williams, & S., Lyon, T.D.,(in press 2019). Increasing maltreated and nonmaltreated children’s recall disclosures of a minor transgression: The effects of back-channel utterances, a promise to tell the truth and a post-recall putative confession. Child Abuse & Neglect

• 67. Stolzenberg, S.N., Williams, S., McWilliams, K., Liang, C., & Lyon, T.D., (in press 2019). The utility of direct questions in eliciting subjective content from children disclosing sexual abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect

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B. Publications in Law Reviews

• 10. Lawrence, J. A., Levin, D. B., Brady, K. L., Jhai, M. & Lyon, T. D., (2015). "Ohio v. Clark: Brief of Amicus Curiae American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children in Support of Petitioner." Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 21, 365–373.

• 9. Lyon, T. D., & Stolzenberg, S. N. (2014). "Children's Memory for Conversations about Sexual Abuse: Legal and Psychological Implications." Roger Williams University Law Review, 19, 411-450. (Symposium: Child Witnesses in Sexual Abuse Cases).

• 8. Lyon, T. D., & Dente J. A. (2012). "Child Witnesses and the Confrontation Clause." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, 102, 1181-1232.

• 7. Lyon, T. D., & LaMagna, R. (2007). "The History of Children's Hearsay: From Old Bailey to Post-Davis." Indiana Law Journal, 82, 1029-1058.

• 6. Lyon, T. D. (2002). "Applying Suggestibility Research to the Real World: The Case of Repeated Questions." Law & Contemporary Problems, 65, 97-126.

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C. Publications in Books

• 19. Lyon, T.D., McWilliams, K., & Williams, S. (2017). "Child Witnesses." In (N. Brewer & A.B. Douglass, eds.) Psychology & Law. New York, NY: Guilford.

• 18. Saywitz, K. J., Lyon, T. D., & Goodman, G. S. (i2018). "When Interviewing Children: A Review and Update." In J. Conte & B. Klika (Eds.), APSAC Handbook on Child Maltreatment (4th ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

• 17. Lyon, T. D. (2016). "Investigative Interviewing of the Child." In D. N. Duquette, A. H. Haralambie, & V. S. Sankaran (Eds.), Child Welfare Law and Practice: Representing Children, Parents, and State Agencies in Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency Cases (3rd ed., pp. 87-113). Denver, CO: Bradford.

• 16. Lyon, T. D. (2013). "Child Witnesses and Imagination: Lying, Hypothetical Reasoning, and Referential Ambiguity." In M. Taylor (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of the Development of Imagination (pp. 126-136). New York, NY: Oxford.

• 15. Lyon, T. D. (2011). "Assessing the Competency of Child Witnesses: Best Practice Informed by Psychology and Law." In M. Lamb, D. La Rooy, L. Malloy, & C. Katz (Eds.), Children’s Testimony: A Handbook of Psychological Research and Forensic Practice (pp. 69-85). Sussex, England: Wiley-Blackwell.

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D. Contribution to Amicus Briefs

• 5. Lyon, T. D. (2014). "American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children in Support of Petitioner, Ohio v. Clark (merits)."

• 4. Lyon, T. D. (2014). "American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children in Support of Petitioner, Ohio v. Clark (petition for cert.)."

• 3. Lyon, T. D. (2008). "National Association of Counsel for Children and American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children in Support of Respondent, Giles v. California."

• 2. Lyon, T. D. (2007). "National Association of Counsel for Children in Support of Respondents. Adrian Martell Davis v. Washington, Hershel Hammon v. Indiana."

• 1. Lyon, T. D. (2003). "American Psychological Association, National Association of Counsel for Children, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, and California Professional Society on the Abuse of Children in Support of Respondent. Marion R. Stogner v. California."

E. Practitioner Guides

• 6. Lyon, T. D. (2005). Ten Step Investigative Interview. [Spanish version]., revised (2013).

• 5. Ahern, E. C., & Lyon, T. D. (2011). Supplemental Investigative Interview Questions.

• 4. Lyon, T. D. (2007). Interviewing Children: Getting More With Less. [Powerpoint notes pages] (DVD).

• 3. Lyon, T. D., & Matthews, M. (2006). Questioning of Child Witnesses. [Model Brief].

• 2. Lyon, T. D. (2005) Ten Step Investigative Interview.

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F. Short Pieces

• 12. Lamb, M. E., Hershkowitz, I., & Lyon, T. D. (2013). Interviewing Victims and Suspected Victims Who are Reluctant to Talk. APSAC Advisor, 25 (4), 16-19.

• 11. Lyon, T. D. (2012). Twenty-Five Years of Interviewing Research and Practice: Dolls, Diagrams, and the Dynamics of Abuse Disclosure. APSAC (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children) Advisor, 24 (1-2), 14-19.

• 10. Lyon, T. D. (2009).  Witnesses, Children As Legal. In R. Shweder, T. Bidell, A. Dailey, S. Dixon, P. Miller, & J. Modell (Eds.), The child: An Encyclopedic Companion (pp. 1036-1039). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• 9. Lyon, T. D., Lamb, M. E., & Myers, J. E. B. (2009). [Legal and psychological support for the NICHD interviewing protocol] Author’s response to Vieth (2008). Child Abuse & Neglect, 33, 71-74.

• 8. Lyon, T. D. (2008). The Supreme Court, Hearsay, and Crawford: Implications for Child Interviewers. APSAC (American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children) Advisor, 20 (3-4), 2-6.

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G. Book Reviews

• 1. Lyon, T. D. (1996). "The Law and Psychology of the Child Witness." Review of the book Child Witnesses: Fragile Voices in the American Legal System, by L. S. McGough. Contemporary Psychology, 41, 701-702.

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

San Francisco Chronicle
April 14, 2021
Re: Jean Lantz Reisz

Jean Reisz was interviewed about the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco's rejection of an earlier U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals decision that denied asylum to Salvadoran sisters who were harassed by a gang. “Their journey to asylum has been difficult and longer than it should have been,” she said. The judge and the board “ignored the evidence and denied lifesaving relief to the twins based on unlawful conclusions” that the court has now overturned. The article also appeared in Microsoft News.

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