Delayed Prosecutions of Historic Child Sexual Abuse: Analyses of 2064 Canadian Criminal Complaints

Recently, in many English-speaking countries, legal principles that had the effect of barring delayed criminal prosecutions have been abrogated. In these jurisdictions, criminal prosecutions of child sexual abuse that is alleged to have occurred in the distant past (historic child sexual abuse or HCSA) are a growing legal challenge. These cases raise myriad issues relevant to research and the development of public policy that would benefit from a considered exchange of ideas that is informed by a clear understanding of the phenomenon. Based on 2064 judicial decisions of Canadian criminal complaints of HCSA we describe the trial, the complainant, the accused, and the offence. In the context of these legal cases, we raise some of the germane issues as well as suggestions for future research and discussion that we believe are particularly current and pressing.     

An Archival Analysis of Actual Cases of Historic Child Sexual Abuse: A Comparison of Jury and Bench Trials

Logistic regression analyses were used to predict verdicts from 466 Canadian jury and 644 Canadian judge-alone criminal trials involving delayed or historic allegations of child sexual abuse. Variables in regard to the complainant and offence were selected from the legal, clinical, and experimental literatures, including mock juror research. Of six variables that had been related to decisions reached in mock juror research concerning delayed allegations of child sexual abuse (i.e., repressed memory testimony, involvement in therapy, length of delay, age of complainant, presence of experts, and frequency of abuse) two (age of complainant and presence of expert) predicted verdicts. An additional five variables (duration, severity, complainant–accused relationship, threats, and complainant gender) were also examined: of these, threats and the complainant–accused relationship reliably predicted jury verdicts. For judge-alone trials, five variables predicted verdict: length of the delay, offence severity, claims of repression, the relationship between complainant and accused, and presence of an expert. Implications of the jurors' and judges' differential sensitivity to these variables for future simulation and archival research are discussed.     

Ourselves Alone? Clár na mBan Conference Report

This article is a review of a report of a republican feminist conference, published by its organizers, Clár na mBan. The conference took place in Belfast in March 1994. The article supports the conference's criticisms of the ‘peace process’ as exclusive and undemocratic. It also takes issue with a number of republican and nationalist assumptions about historical and contemporary Ireland.     

The flypaper effect: Identifying areas for further research

The flypaper effect literature dates back three decades. It is overwhelmingly neoclassical in approach, attempting to improve the median voter demand model and/or temper it with public choice supply-side perspectives. Whilst this approach provided valuable early substantial analytical insights, more recent papers seem to have contributed only marginally to an understanding of the flypaper effect, if indeed it exists at all. Hence, as well as providing a long-overdue comprehensive review of the literature on the flypaper effect, this paper identifies more productive avenues for further research.