Thomas D. Lyon
USC Gould School of Law

Vice Dean for Faculty and Academic Affairs, and 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 16, 2022

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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

• 91. Henderson, H.M., Konovalov, H., Williams, S., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). The utility of the birthday prompt in narrative practice with maltreated and non-maltreated 4- to 9-year-old children. Applied Developmental Science.

• 90. Wylie, B.E., Gongola, J., Lyon, T.D., & Evans, A.D (in press). The difficulty of teaching adults to recognize referential ambiguity in children's testimony: The influence of explicit instruction and sample questions. Applied Cognitive Psychology.

• 89. Durante, Z., Ardulov, A., Kumar, M., Gongola, J., Lyon, T.D., & Narayanan, S. (in press). Causal indicators for assessing the truthfulness of child speech in forensic interviews. Computer Speech & Language.

• 88. O'Connor, A.M., Lyon, T.D., Wiens, M., & Evans, A.D. (in press). Use of global trait cues helps to explain older adults’ decrements in detecting children’s lies. Legal and Criminological Psychology.

• 87. Gongola, J., Williams, S., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Children's under-informative responding is associated with concealment of a transgression. Applied Cognitive Psychology. 

• 86. Nogalska, A.M., Henderson, H.M. Cho, S.J., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Police interviewing behaviors and commercially sexually exploited adolescents' reluctance. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.

• 85. Henderson, H., Cho, S.J., Nogalska, A.M., & Lyon, T.D. (2021). Identifying novel forms of reluctance in commercially sexually exploited adolescents. Child Abuse & Neglect, 115, 104994.

• 84. McWilliams, K., Williams, S., Stolzenberg, S.N., Evans, A.D., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Don't know responding in young maltreated children: The effects of wh- questions type and enhanced interview instructions. Law & Human Behavior.

• 83. Sullivan, C., St. George, S., Stolzenberg, S.N., Williams, S., & Lyon, T.D. (in press). Imprecision about body mechanics when child witnesses are questioned about sexual abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

• 82. Henderson, H.M. & Lyon, T.D. (2021). Increasing true reports without increasing false reports: Best practice interviewing methods and open-ended wh- questions. American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children Advisor, 33(1), 29-39.

• 81. Domagalski, K., Gongola, J., Clark, S.E., Quas, J.A., & Lyon, T.D.  (2020). Detecting children’s true and false denials of wrongdoing: Effects of question type and base rate knowledge. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 38, 612-629.

• 80. Lyon, T.D., Williams, S., Stolzenberg, S. N. (2020). Understanding expert testimony on child sexual abuse denial after New Jersey v. J.L.G.: Ground truth, disclosure suspicion bias, and disclosure substantiation bias. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 38, 630-647.

• 79. Henderson, H.M., & Lyon, T.D. (2021). Children's signaling of incomprehension: The diagnosticity of practice questions during interview instructions. Child Maltreatment, 26(1), 95-104.

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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

• 7. Lundon, G.M., Sargent, J.E., Henderson, H.M., Gongola, J., & Lyon, T.D. (2020). USC Child Interviewing Lab Tele-Forensic Interview Protocol.

• 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].

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F. Short Pieces

• 13. Quas, J.A, & Lyon, T.D. (2019) Questioning unaccompanied immigrant children: Lessons from developmental science on forensic interviewing. SRCD Child Evidence Brief, No. 6.

• 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.

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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.

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