Abstract
The prosecution of child sex abuse in cases involving very young
children presents difficult problems for the justice system. Ross Cheit's
book The Witch‐Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the
Sexual Abuse of Children (2014) addresses these problems
in the context of the 1980s cases involving daycare centers. While the
conventional conclusion drawn from these cases is that young children are
not credible witnesses, Cheit's examination of the trial records in these
cases reveals credible evidence of abuse in many, as well as evidence of
injustice attributable to untrained and/or overenthusiastic interviewers.
Cheit's examination of this litigation provides an opportunity to evaluate
the legal system's treatment of child witnesses in sex abuse cases, as well
as to discuss the appropriate use of social scientific evidence in
litigation, the impact of mass media accounts on public policy, and the
respective merits of criminal versus civil lawsuits in child sex abuse
cases.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Law,General Social Sciences
Cited by
5 articles.
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