A systematic literature review: which factors influence English and Welsh perceptions towards victims of child sexual abuse?

Abstract

Negative perceptions towards child sexual abuse (CSA) victims are prevalent within society. This has potential implications for CSA victims in terms of its effects on victim well-being and legal proceedings. Although many studies have investigated which factors influence English and Welsh perceptions, a systematic review has not been conducted to synthesise findings. Nine electronic bibliographic databases, six grey literature databases and one gateway resource were searched. Hand-searches of journals and references were also conducted and field experts contacted. Following the application of the inclusion criteria, studies were quality assessed and data extracted. The search yielded 4182 studies of which 1501 duplicates and 2644 irrelevant studies were excluded. After a further 26 studies were excluded, 11 studies were included in the review. This revealed a sample of 3088 participants with 18 factors investigated. To acknowledge the heterogeneity of the data, a narrative data synthesis approach was used. The review identified firm conclusions regarding respondent gender, whereby males perceived CSA victims as more to blame, more culpable, less reliable and less credible. Other tentative conclusions are discussed. Potential implications of these findings are discussed in terms of professional services and the response victims receive during disclosure. ARTICLE HISTORY

The utility of direct questions about actions with the hands in child forensic interviews.

“…Juries may also be more willing to convict; Stolzenberg and Lyon (2014a) found that, controlling for other case characteristics, adding force or duress to a charge of sexual abuse against a child under 14 increased the odds of conviction by nine times. Survey evidence has suggested that adults expect children to resist sexual abuse (Shackel, 2008) and mock juror research has found that participants are less likely to believe children and view them as more blameworthy if they failed to resist (Hatton & Duff, 2016).…”

The Impact of the Consistency of Child Witness and Peer Reports on Credibility

“…With age, children are considered more cognitively competent as adults perceive older children as having more reliable memories (Leippe & Romanczyk, 1989; Pozzulo et al, 2006; Wright et al, 2010), less susceptibility to suggestive questioning (Castelli et al, 2005), and increased capability of providing accurate and credible reports of events (Connolly et al, 2008, 2010; Goodman et al, 1987; Wood et al, 1996) relative to younger children. In contrast, perceptions of honesty tend to decrease with age as children’s deceptive abilities improve (Bottoms et al, 2007; Bottoms & Goodman, 1994; Davies & Rogers, 2009; Gabora et al, 1993; Goodman et al,1989, Experiment 2; Hatton & Duff, 2016; Nightingale, 1993). Additionally, particularly with children, either honesty or cognitive competence can be more salient depending on the context of the case; for example, young children are typically considered more honest in sexual abuse cases than older children and adults because they are considered too naïve to construct plausible false narratives about sexual behaviors (McCauley & Parker, 2000; Rogers & Davies, 2007).…”