Abstract
Ross Cheit’s book The Witch-Hunt Narrative highlights the difficulties of prosecuting child sexual abuse. Drawing examples from a single case, Alex A., we examine the ways in which false acquittals of sexual abuse are likely to occur. First, prosecutors tend to question children in ways that undermine their productivity and credibility. Second, prosecutors have difficulty in explaining to juries the dynamics of sexual abuse and disclosure, making children’s acquiescence to abuse and their failure to disclose when abuse first occurs incredible. Third, attorneys undermine children’s credibility by pushing them to provide difficult to estimate temporal and numerical information. A post-script to the Alex A. case illustrates the costs of wrongful acquittals.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 805-825 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | Journal of Interpersonal Violence |
Volume | 32 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2017 |
Keywords
- child abuse
- child sexual abuse
- prevention of child abuse
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Applied Psychology