Review: Court Licensed Abuse: Patriarchal Lore and the Legal Response to Intra-Familial Sexual Abuse of Children
| Published date | 01 July 2007 |
| Date | 01 July 2007 |
| Author | Jacqueline Wheatcroft |
| DOI | 10.1350/ijep.2007.11.3.239 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEW
REVIEW
S. Caroline Taylor
COURT LICENSED ABUSE: PATRIARCHAL LORE AND THE LEGAL
RESPONSE TO INTRA-FAMILIAL SEXUAL ABUSE OF CHILDREN
Peter Lang Publishing (New York, 2004) 312pp, pb £25
This book is based on analysis of complete transcripts of intra-familial sexual
abuse trials conducted in the Victorian County Court of Australia in 1995. The
purpose of the book, in Taylor’s own words, ‘is to make explicit the process by
which victims of intra-familial rape are silenced, how gaps in their evidence are
created and silences are filled with dominant masculinist stories and narratives
about child sexual abuse’ (p. 1).
The book claims to highlight key deficiencies of adversarial procedures in general
and cross-examination in particular as mechanisms for ‘truth’ discovery and thus
presents a provocative challenge to the current conduct of child sexual abuse
trials in common law jurisdictions.
The introductory chapter sets out the book’s underlying theoretical and philo-
sophical arguments which are rooted in feminist legal scholarship. The author
highlights how feminist analyses have in recent decades challenged and
rebutted entrenched theoretical discourse on intra-familial abuse with its
emphasis on mother blame and victim blame. Drawing upon such analyses the
book aims to ‘expose fundamental structures in legal process that inhibit
fact-finding and neutrality, and to reveal the predilection for making trials a site
where dominant masculinist stories about sexual violence are mobilized and
sanctioned’ (p. 1).
The second chapter, ‘Telling Legal Tales’, discusses the concept of legal storytelling
as an ideological tool (p. 20). Trials involving sexual violence mobilise stock-story
narratives about women, in particular, and children based on strong stereotypes
and social myths that are deeply embedded within professional, legal and social
discourses, Taylor argues. In such trials, stories by the dominant social and gender
group are given precedence over the stories told by the subordinate and less
powerful group. When it comes to allegations of intra-familial rape, Taylor notes
the resilience of evidentiary doctrines including the corroboration warning
which has traditionally required jurors to scrutinise the words of sexual offence
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EVIDENCE & PROOF (2007) 11 E&P 239–241 239
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