This file contains two articles from the Journal Of Forensic Sciences, May 2000.
These articles are Clothing Damage Analysis And The Phenomenon Of The False Sexual Assault by Jane Moira Taupin, and On The Assessment Of Children In Suspected Child Sexual Abuse In Light Of Daubert And Frye: Limitations Of Profiles And Interviews As Scientifically Grounded Evidence by Brian J. Bigelow.
Although as is usually the case with articles in academic journals, the papers are submitted well in advance often with considerable delay before acceptance and publication, the above date is as good as any. Both current papers were submitted in early 1999. Parts of Taupin’s article was presented at a symposium in October 1998.
Before commenting further, let me say I spent considerable time scanning these pages and then cleaning up the resulting scans. My apologies for the relatively poor turnout of the second article.
Because it is more of a mini-instruction manual than a journal article, I will deal with the second first.
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Author Brian Bigelow is a North American psychologist, and as is to be expected, his article is mainly American-based, the references to Frye and Daubert are the leading cases on expert evidence. Frye dates to 1923; it was a murder case in which the defense tried to hoodwink the jury with a lie detector. It didn’t work. The Daubert case is a much later civil case and likewise concerns the admissibility of expert evidence.
[A discussion of Frye and Daubert along with the actual judgments can be found on this page.]
The child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome is mentioned here. Like rape trauma syndrome, it has no basis in fact. Both are used to affirm the veracity of any allegation of rape or child sexual abuse, however absurd.
Because like police officers, young children often have difficulty distinguishing truth from fiction, great care must be taken when interviewing them.
The article has many references – cases as well as journal articles and books – which will doubtless continue to be ignored by social(ist) workers more so than the police and courts.
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The first article is written by a very experienced and renowned forensic scientist. She has worked in both the British Isles and Australia, and has lectured in many countries, including Japan. Hopefully, publishing it won’t put any ideas into the already sick minds of female psychopaths, having said that...
The author makes the point that false reports are relatively common, not only of rape but of other crimes, particularly of those committed for financial gain. Also, victims can and do exaggerate the monetary value of a theft or loss. A whole book could be written on this subject, such as cash for crash (reverse that if you wish), insurance fraud, etc. For an amusing example of a genuine victim making a false rape allegation, see the case of Luke Entwistle.
Taupin’s reference to corroboration of the victim’s account is unfortunate; corroboration is not required in most jurisdictions, only a story. This means anyone on the receiving end of an historical allegation is on a hiding-to-nothing.
The fact that around 25% of cases involving clothing damage analysis in Victoria raises suspicion of falsity is shocking, and something the sisterhood never mentions. How many such cases are actually false? She gives the following actual examples (in my order) below the asterisk line:
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September 1995-February 1996: In Victoria, a young woman, a lawyer no less, is raped on two occasions, the first time at knifepoint, the second involved thrusting a knife into her vagina! The non-victim ended up being charged with numerous other false reports including arson. See page 569 of Clothing Damage Analysis And The Phenomemon Of The False Sexual Assault (above).
Circa 1996: A 55 year old woman from Melbourne is the victim of an aggravated rape. A woman of this age is almost always credible, as acknowledged here. Sadly or otherwise, this one wasn’t. The author also points out that this phony rape received heavy publicity, while the subsequent retraction received very little. I second that!
Circa 1997: A young woman from Melbourne claims to have been sexually assaulted but apparently not raped one night in her backyard. She admits the falsity and is labelled an ATTENTION SEEKER. See page 569 of Clothing Damage Analysis And The Phenomemon Of The False Sexual Assault (above). See page 569 of Clothing Damage Analysis And The Phenomenon Of The False Sexual Assault (above).
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