{"id":644,"date":"2012-09-24T16:05:19","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T16:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=644"},"modified":"2016-07-04T12:00:53","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T12:00:53","slug":"faller-everson-resist-trend-toward-skepticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=644","title":{"rendered":"Faller, Everson resist trend toward skepticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"style187\" style=\"text-align: right;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-645\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/120924Journal.jpg\" alt=\"120924Journal\" width=\"140\" height=\"165\" \/>Sept. 24, 2012<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">The February 2012\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/10538712.2012.642944?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&amp;rfr_id=ori:rid:crossref.org&amp;rfr_dat=cr_pub%3dpubmed\" target=\"_blank\">special issue<\/a>\u00a0of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse is devoted entirely to \u201cContested Issues in the Evaluation of Child Sexual Abuse Allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">Ritual-abuse holdouts\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=522\">Kathleen Coulborn Faller<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=552\">Mark D. Everson<\/a>\u00a0use the issue to vigorously push back against calls for greater diagnostic skepticism.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">The object of their displeasure is \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/mhlp.fmhi.usf.edu\/newsEvents\/mhlpnewsitem.cfm?item=193\" target=\"_blank\">The Evaluation of Child Sexual Abuse Allegations<\/a>: A Comprehensive Guide to Assessment and Testimony\u201d (2009), edited by the late Kathryn Kuehnle and\u00a0Mary Connell. Contributors to the Kuehnle-Connell volume advocate more reliance on forensic science and less on \u201cunverified methods or conjecture\u201d of the kind that enabled prosecution of the Edenton Seven. By contrast, Everson and Faller can be counted on to stretch the bounds of prosecution-worthy evidence, from finding \u201cclinical usefulness\u201d in anatomical dolls to granting universal credibility to child-witnesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">From Everson\u2019s response in the journal:<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cMany critics of current forensic practice (emphasize) specificity over sensitivity&#8230;. Specificity (minimizing inclusion of false cases) and sensitivity (maximizing inclusion of true cases) are counterbalancing indices of decision accuracy. Favoring specificity over sensitivity means that overdiagnosing (child sexual abuse) is considered a more serious concern than failing to substantiate true cases of abuse&#8230;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">Yes, I\u2019ll admit it: I consider the perils of overdiagnosis \u2013 putting innocent people in prison \u2013 much worse than those of underdiagnosis \u2013 letting a possible abuser go free, at least temporarily. However much Everson and Faller might wish otherwise, our system of justice does stipulate \u201creasonable doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sept. 24, 2012 The February 2012\u00a0special issue\u00a0of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse is devoted entirely to \u201cContested Issues in the Evaluation of Child Sexual Abuse Allegations.\u201d Ritual-abuse holdouts\u00a0Kathleen Coulborn Faller\u00a0and\u00a0Mark D. Everson\u00a0use the issue to vigorously push back against calls for greater diagnostic skepticism. The object of their displeasure is \u201cThe Evaluation of Child [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2501,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions\/2501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}