“In the United States, three states have adopted some variant of the parent-child privilege by statute, and one state, New York, has judicially recognized the privilege”Both ancient Jewish Law and Roman Law entirely barred family members from testifying against one another, the basis of which was the desire to promote solidarity and trust within the family .
Dean Wigmore’s four-factor formula requires satisfaction of all four factors to establish a privilege:the element of confidentiality must be essential to the full and satisfactory maintenance of the relation between the parties;the injury that the relation would incur by the disclosure of the communications must be greater than the benefit… gained for the correct disposal of the litigation .First, confidentiality is not essential to a successful parent-child relationship.
However, an individual may be compelled to testify when the “testimony is indispensable in a crime [committed] against that person or [committed] by one parent against the other”. Regardless of whether the person is a victim or not, the parental and filial privilege will not apply if the witness freely and voluntarily testifies.
According to the boy, while sleeping in one room with his father , the victim, and his two other younger brothers, he was awakened by the victim’s loud cries .