Overview

Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse fills a gap for an authoritative and considered text focused on false accusations of recent or historical abuse, both as a miscarriage of justice and as an ordeal which impairs lives even when it does not result in criminal charges. It brings together experts from different disciplinary backgrounds and relevant specialisms to explicate the context, causes, and processes that foster erroneous or fabricated allegations and to consider ways of reducing their incidence and the injustices that follow them. While there has been a welcome increase in policies which address child abuse, rape and other sexual offences, these tend to neglect or disavow the diametrical problem of false allegations of such offences. It is inherent in the, typically, unwitnessed and physically uncorroborated nature of these 'hidden' crimes that they are difficult to prosecute; but also to disprove if no crime has been committed. It is right that all allegations of abuse are treated as believable and are rigorously investigated, but it is not in the interest of any progressive and robust system of justice to convict or malign innocent people. Approached from this more controversial perspective, the five parts of this volume chart the life-course of an untrue allegation. Beginning with the nature, extent and harm of false abuse allegations, the cultural and political context giving rise to false allegations, and then the causal and motivational factors for making them, are explored, before addressing the role and impact of the criminal justice system when handling such cases. The final part looks at the ways such concerns might be addressed whilst remaining mindful of victims of abuse and their suffering.Tackling an under-researched and under-discussed area, Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse offers thoughtful and thought-provoking discourses around an understandably difficult and sensitive area. It will be essential reading for academics and students of criminology, sociology, criminal justice, criminal law, socio-legal studies, and psychology, as well as those working with victims of false allegations, and police and specialist practitioners dealing with sexual offences and child abuse.

Full Product Details

Author:   Ros Burnett (Senior Research Associate, Senior Research Associate, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.10cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.662kg
ISBN:  

9780198723301

ISBN 10:   019872330
Pages:   328
Publication Date:   01 September 2016
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

PART I: THE REALITY OF WRONGFUL ALLEGATIONS OF ABUSE What kind of allegations and why do they matter? 1: Ros Burnett: Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse: A Neglected and Growing Category of Injustice 2: Edited by Ros Burnett: Experiencing False Allegations of Abuse: First-hand Accounts PART II: CULTURE, IDEOLOGY, POLITICS What is the terrain that gives rise to false allegations? 3: Mary deYoung: Demons, Devils and Ritual Abuse: Interdisciplinary Perspectives 4: Frank Furedi: Moral Crusades, Child Protection, Celebrities and the Duty to Believe 5: Mark Smith: Telling Stories? Adults' Retrospective Narratives of Abuse in Residential Child Care 6: John Brigham: 'Rape Culture' Narrative, State Feminism and the Presumption of Guilt 7: Bill Hebenton and Toby Seddon: Making Accusations: Precautionary Logic and Embedded Suspicion in an Insecure and Uncertain World PART III: THE ALLEGATION: CAUSES, MOTIVATIONS, CASE-STUDIES Why would anyone make a false accusation? 8: Felicity Goodyear-Smith: Why and How False Allegations of Abuse Occur: An Overview 9: Barbara Hewson: The Compensations of Being a Victim 10: J. Guillermo Villalobos, Deborah Davis and Richard A. Leo: His Story, Her Story: Sexual Miscommunication, Motivated Remembering, and Intoxication as Pathways to Honest False Testimony Regarding Sexual Consent 11: Christopher C French and James Ost: Beliefs about Memory, Childhood Abuse and Hypnosis Amongst Clinicians, Legal Professionals and the General Public 12: David Rose: To Catch a Sex Offender: Police, Trawls and Personal Injury Solicitors PART IV: INTERROGATION, PROSECUTION, CONVICTION, APPEAL How could the justice system get it so wrong? 13: Deborah Davis and Richard A. Leo: When Exoneration Seems Hopeless: The Special Vulnerability of Sexual Abuse Suspects to False Confession 14: Luke Gittos: Complaints of Sexual Abuse and the Decline of Objective Prosecuting 15: Daniel Medwed: 'In denial': the Hazards of Maintaining Innocence After Conviction 16: Michael Zander: When Juries Find Innocent People Guilty: Strengths and Limitations of the Appellate System in England and Wales PART V: FINDING WAYS FORWARD What's to be done? 17: Steve Herman: Reducing Harm Due to False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse: The Importance of Corroboration 18: Galit Nahari: Advances in Lie Detection: Limitations and Potential for Investigating Allegations of Abuse 19: Robert F. Belli: Toward Reconciliation of the True and False Recovered Memory Debate 20: Timothy Bakken: The Defendant's Plea of Innocent in Sexual Abuse Cases 21: Ros Burnett: Reducing the Incidence and Harms of Wrongful Allegations of Abuse

Reviews

This is a ground-breaking book. It will undoubtedly become a major reference work for criminologists, sociologists, legal researchers and legal professionals. It deserves also to be read by policy makers, parliamentarians and social commentators ... The arbitrary nature of false allegations are discussed with a clarity that is thought-provoking ... An authoritative and ambitious book which exposes the injustice of untrue allegations. Dr Kevin Felstead, British False Memory Society The book, part academic, part polemic, is an essential read for any and all involved in the criminal justice system - which means everyone: investigators, interviewers, social workers, police, prosecutors, defenders, judges and the public (as potential jurors). To me, this book is a genuine 21-faceted diamond - and how, how, I wish it was available some 25 years ago. As a whole, it is one large cautionary tale. To finish on a practical note for criminal lawyers: this book is a virtual directory containing a gallery of experts, their expertise and their experience, with excerpts of their work. If for no other reason than that, you may want to think of acquiring it - or, at the very least, consulting a copy. But if you do just try to use it as a directory, I venture the thought that the content, its substance and its strength, will lay a hold on you. Nigel Hampton QC, LawTalk The experience of those accused of such heinous crimes is little explored and understood. This month, a new book is published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse - making an important contribution to the debate. Jon Robins, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly This is an important book which raises serious issues not only for academics but also for criminal justice policy-makers, practitioners and commentators. It illuminates some troubling features of the justice system in Britain and the United States and of modern western society more generally. It deserves to be widely read, not least by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which the British Government set up in 2014. David Faulkner CB, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford Happily - if anything can be so described in such a context - Oxford University Press published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse, edited by a senior research associate at that university's Centre for Criminology, Ros Burnett. Its 21 contributions from experts in this field, both legal and academic, set out how public horror at the thought of sexual abuse of children has led even apparently sophisticated legal systems into extraordinary injustices. Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times The one thing this book isn't, most emphatically isn't, is a demolition of any particular claims of sexual abuse. It is far, far, cleverer than that. It is a careful analysis, expert by expert, of the psychological pressures that might lead to a wrongful allegation; of the ways in which policing methods may contribute towards this; the economic pressures on therapists and personal injury lawyers; how judicial thinking is formulated and best of all, several chapters on how we could move forward in the future, in the best interests of both complainants and defendants ... I hope that people, particularly journalists and activists, from both sides of the great divide as the issue of historic allegations of abuse has become, will read this book, cover to cover. If you are going to argue, debate, or be an activist on the subject - then you should be in possession of all the facts. Susan Cameron-Blackie

It should ... become required study for all those whose task it is to assess the truthfulness and reliability of allegations of sexual assault police investigators, prosecution lawyers and trial judges. Anthony Heaton-Armstrong, Counsel Magazine. A very important academic contribution to an increasingly worrying contemporary debate. Sir Henry Brooke This is a ground-breaking book. It will undoubtedly become a major reference work for criminologists, sociologists, legal researchers and legal professionals. It deserves also to be read by policy makers, parliamentarians and social commentators ... The arbitrary nature of false allegations are discussed with a clarity that is thought-provoking ... An authoritative and ambitious book which exposes the injustice of untrue allegations. Dr Kevin Felstead, British False Memory Society The book, part academic, part polemic, is an essential read for any and all involved in the criminal justice system - which means everyone: investigators, interviewers, social workers, police, prosecutors, defenders, judges and the public (as potential jurors). To me, this book is a genuine 21-faceted diamond - and how, how, I wish it was available some 25 years ago. As a whole, it is one large cautionary tale. To finish on a practical note for criminal lawyers: this book is a virtual directory containing a gallery of experts, their expertise and their experience, with excerpts of their work. If for no other reason than that, you may want to think of acquiring it - or, at the very least, consulting a copy. But if you do just try to use it as a directory, I venture the thought that the content, its substance and its strength, will lay a hold on you. Nigel Hampton QC, LawTalk The experience of those accused of such heinous crimes is little explored and understood. This month, a new book is published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse - making an important contribution to the debate. Jon Robins, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly This is an important book which raises serious issues not only for academics but also for criminal justice policy-makers, practitioners and commentators. It illuminates some troubling features of the justice system in Britain and the United States and of modern western society more generally. It deserves to be widely read, not least by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which the British Government set up in 2014. David Faulkner CB, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford Happily - if anything can be so described in such a context - Oxford University Press published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse, edited by a senior research associate at that university's Centre for Criminology, Ros Burnett. Its 21 contributions from experts in this field, both legal and academic, set out how public horror at the thought of sexual abuse of children has led even apparently sophisticated legal systems into extraordinary injustices. Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times The one thing this book isn't, most emphatically isn't, is a demolition of any particular claims of sexual abuse. It is far, far, cleverer than that. It is a careful analysis, expert by expert, of the psychological pressures that might lead to a wrongful allegation; of the ways in which policing methods may contribute towards this; the economic pressures on therapists and personal injury lawyers; how judicial thinking is formulated and best of all, several chapters on how we could move forward in the future, in the best interests of both complainants and defendants ... I hope that people, particularly journalists and activists, from both sides of the great divide as the issue of historic allegations of abuse has become, will read this book, cover to cover. If you are going to argue, debate, or be an activist on the subject - then you should be in possession of all the facts. Susan Cameron-Blackie

The experience of those accused of such heinous crimes is little explored and understood. This month, a new book is published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse - making an important contribution to the debate. Jon Robins, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly This is an important book which raises serious issues not only for academics but also for criminal justice policy-makers, practitioners and commentators. It illuminates some troubling features of the justice system in Britain and the United States and of modern western society more generally. It deserves to be widely read, not least by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which the British Government set up in 2014. David Faulkner, Centre for Criminology Happily - if anything can be so described in such a context - Oxford University Press published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse, edited by a senior research associate at that university's Centre for Criminology, Ros Burnett. Its 21 contributions from experts in this field, both legal and academic, set out how public horror at the thought of sexual abuse of children has led even apparently sophisticated legal systems into extraordinary injustices. Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times The one thing this book isnt, most emphatically isnt, is a demolition of any particular claims of sexual abuse. It is far, far, cleverer than that. It is a careful analysis, expert by expert, of the psychological pressures that might lead to a wrongful allegation; of the ways in which policing methods may contribute towards this; the economic pressures on therapists and personal injury lawyers; how judicial thinking is formulated and best of all, several chapters on how we could move forward in the future, in the best interests of both complainants and defendants ... I hope that people, particularly journalists and activists, from both sides of the great divide as the issue of historic allegations of abuse has become, will read this book, cover to cover. If you are going to argue, debate, or be an activist on the subject - then you should be in possession of all the facts. Susan Cameron-Blackie

A very important academic contribution to an increasingly worrying contemporary debate. Sir Henry Brooke This is a ground-breaking book. It will undoubtedly become a major reference work for criminologists, sociologists, legal researchers and legal professionals. It deserves also to be read by policy makers, parliamentarians and social commentators ... The arbitrary nature of false allegations are discussed with a clarity that is thought-provoking ... An authoritative and ambitious book which exposes the injustice of untrue allegations. Dr Kevin Felstead, British False Memory Society The book, part academic, part polemic, is an essential read for any and all involved in the criminal justice system - which means everyone: investigators, interviewers, social workers, police, prosecutors, defenders, judges and the public (as potential jurors). To me, this book is a genuine 21-faceted diamond - and how, how, I wish it was available some 25 years ago. As a whole, it is one large cautionary tale. To finish on a practical note for criminal lawyers: this book is a virtual directory containing a gallery of experts, their expertise and their experience, with excerpts of their work. If for no other reason than that, you may want to think of acquiring it - or, at the very least, consulting a copy. But if you do just try to use it as a directory, I venture the thought that the content, its substance and its strength, will lay a hold on you. Nigel Hampton QC, LawTalk The experience of those accused of such heinous crimes is little explored and understood. This month, a new book is published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse - making an important contribution to the debate. Jon Robins, Criminal Law & Justice Weekly This is an important book which raises serious issues not only for academics but also for criminal justice policy-makers, practitioners and commentators. It illuminates some troubling features of the justice system in Britain and the United States and of modern western society more generally. It deserves to be widely read, not least by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse which the British Government set up in 2014. David Faulkner CB, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford Happily - if anything can be so described in such a context - Oxford University Press published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse, edited by a senior research associate at that university's Centre for Criminology, Ros Burnett. Its 21 contributions from experts in this field, both legal and academic, set out how public horror at the thought of sexual abuse of children has led even apparently sophisticated legal systems into extraordinary injustices. Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times The one thing this book isn't, most emphatically isn't, is a demolition of any particular claims of sexual abuse. It is far, far, cleverer than that. It is a careful analysis, expert by expert, of the psychological pressures that might lead to a wrongful allegation; of the ways in which policing methods may contribute towards this; the economic pressures on therapists and personal injury lawyers; how judicial thinking is formulated and best of all, several chapters on how we could move forward in the future, in the best interests of both complainants and defendants ... I hope that people, particularly journalists and activists, from both sides of the great divide as the issue of historic allegations of abuse has become, will read this book, cover to cover. If you are going to argue, debate, or be an activist on the subject - then you should be in possession of all the facts. Susan Cameron-Blackie

Happily - if anything can be so described in such a context - Oxford University Press published Wrongful Allegations of Sexual and Child Abuse, edited by a senior research associate at that universitys Centre for Criminology, Ros Burnett. Its 21 contributions from experts in this field, both legal and academic, set out how public horror at the thought of sexual abuse of children has led even apparently sophisticated legal systems into extraordinary injustices. Dominic Lawson, The Sunday Times The one thing this book isnt, most emphatically isnt, is a demolition of any particular claims of sexual abuse. It is far, far, cleverer than that. It is a careful analysis, expert by expert, of the psychological pressures that might lead to a wrongful allegation; of the ways in which policing methods may contribute towards this; the economic pressures on therapists and personal injury lawyers; how judicial thinking is formulated and best of all, several chapters on how we could move forward in the future, in the best interests of both complainants and defendants ... I hope that people, particularly journalists and activists, from both sides of the great divide as the issue of historic allegations of abuse has become, will read this book, cover to cover. If you are going to argue, debate, or be an activist on the subject -then you should be in possession of all the facts, not just the ones that reinforce your chosen viewpoint. Susan Cameron-Blackie

Author Information

Ros Burnett is a Senior Research Associate, formerly Reader in Criminology, at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, which she joined in 1990 after gaining a DPhil in social psychology at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford. Her research areas include interpersonal relationships; rehabilitation of offenders and desistance from crime; and wrongful allegations of sexual and child abuse. Her most recent book was Where Next for Criminal Justice? (co-authored with David Faulkner) published by The Policy Press, 2011. Recent voluntary work includes research and information consultant to FACT, the support group for falsely accused, and she is an associate editor of the International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology.

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