Moving beyond litigation and positivism: another approach to accusations of sexual abuse

Cowburn, Malcolm and Dominelli, Lena (1998) Moving beyond litigation and positivism: another approach to accusations of sexual abuse. British Journal of Social Work, 28 (4), 525-543.

Abstract

The Current polarized debated about false memory and reclaimed memory with regard to child sexual abuse have trivialized the significance of experimental knowledge and contributed to the silencing of the voice of the victim-survivor. They have also enabled the alleged abuser to avoid confronting those elements of his behaviour which are problematic for others and discouraged preventative approaches by locking the protagonists into adversarial positions. We argue that this need not be the case if therapeutic relationships can operate outside of court driven proceedings and be aimed at responding to the needs of the victim-survivor to have their experience of abuse validated and of the alleged abuser to work on non-abusive ways of relating to others.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Download statistics