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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:10 am
Time: 12:10 am
Results for wrongly accused
1 results foundAuthor: Hoyle, Carolyn Title: The Impact of Being Wrongly Accused of Abuse in Occupations of Trust: Victims' Voices Summary: Recent decades have seen an emerging body of research focused on crime victims and their perspectives. In particular, there has been concern that allegations of sexual abuse, particularly non-recent abuse, have not received an appropriate response. Among politicians, criminal justice agencies and charities in the UK, there is a collective sense of remorse that reports of abuse were often not properly investigated and that those who reported it were often not believed. From this has emerged a new determination to correct past and prevent further injustices of this kind. Not surprisingly, there has been a cultural shift towards believing allegations of abuse, and the presumption now is in favour of trusting those who present as victims. It is important that all agencies, particularly the police, are alert to the needs of those who claim to be victims of abuse, but not to the extent of overlooking those who are victims of wrongful allegations. In a society which has made so much progress in addressing the needs of victims and in taking account of their perspective, those who have been smeared by false allegations of grievous crimes sometimes see themselves as the forgotten victims (of official errors if not of their accusers). They feel disregarded, and that they and their partners and children are left to suffer the ignominy alone. This qualitative study of people's experiences of being falsely accused of child/adult abuse in occupational contexts gives a voice to these other victims, by way of a content analysis of first person accounts. Set against the background of a broad social discourse focused on prosecuting child abusers and sex offenders, one which recognises that victims of abuse need great courage to report crimes against them, it may seem perverse to shine a spotlight on the wrongly accused. Some may worry that dwelling on them will drive victims back into the shadows for fear they will not be believed. However, hearing about the experiences of those who are falsely accused does not diminish lessons that can be learnt from victims of abuse. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has invited victims and survivors of child sexual abuse to share their experience with the Inquiry team, and advises that the information provided will feed into the 'Truth Project'. However, the IICSA also intends to hear testimony from those who have been falsely accused to ensure a balance between encouraging the reporting of child sexual abuse and protecting the rights of the accused. We believe the IICSA is likely to hear evidence similar to the data presented below. Details: Oxford, UK: University of Oxford Centre for Criminology, 2017. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 27, 2017 at: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/the_impact_of_being_wrongly_accused_of_abuse_hoyle_speechley_burnett_final_26_may.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/the_impact_of_being_wrongly_accused_of_abuse_hoyle_speechley_burnett_final_26_may.pdf Shelf Number: 146524 Keywords: Child Sexual AbuseFalse AccusationsPolice InvestigationsWrongly Accused |