Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse
Ros Burnett
Abstract
Child sexual abuse, rape and other abuse against vulnerable populations attract outrage around the world. It is right that efforts have been redoubled to prevent and intervene against them, but where so much reliance is placed on verbal evidence, mistakes can be made either way. Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse brings together contributions by academics and experts from different disciplinary backgrounds to fill a gap in the literature relating to false allegations of recent or historical abuse. The adjective ‘false’, used interchangeably with ‘wrongful’, includes allegations mad ... More
Child sexual abuse, rape and other abuse against vulnerable populations attract outrage around the world. It is right that efforts have been redoubled to prevent and intervene against them, but where so much reliance is placed on verbal evidence, mistakes can be made either way. Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse brings together contributions by academics and experts from different disciplinary backgrounds to fill a gap in the literature relating to false allegations of recent or historical abuse. The adjective ‘false’, used interchangeably with ‘wrongful’, includes allegations made in error, as well as those that are deliberate fabrications or distortions of the truth. The structure of the book follows the course of an untrue allegation: Part I introduces the nature, extent, and harm of false abuse allegations; Part II is concerned with the terrain that gives rise to false allegations; Part III explores why and how untrue allegations are made; Part IV analyses how the criminal justice system can get it wrong in such cases; and Part V looks for ways forward.
Keywords:
wrongful allegation,
falsely accused,
victim,
offender,
complainant,
innocent,
miscarriage of justice,
sexual offence,
child abuse,
evidence
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198723301 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198723301.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Ros Burnett, editor
Senior Research Associate, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford
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