Child Abuse

Laura Hoyano holds three degrees from the University of Alberta in Canada in medieval history and law, and the BCL (Balliol College Oxford). In 1994 she accepted an academic appointment at the Law Faculty of the University of Bristol. In 1999 she became a Tutorial Fellow and CUF Lecturer at Wadham College, Oxford University, where she teaches Evidence, Criminal and Tort Law. Together with colleagues at Bristol University, Caroline Keenan and Laura Hoyano were co-directors of a major empirical and comparative law study funded by the Home Office, An Assessment of the Admissibility and Sufficiency of Evidence in Child Abuse Prosecutions (HMSO 1999), which contributed to the eventual enactment of Special Measures Directions in the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. Laura Hoyano has published and lectured extensively about litigating child abuse in different fields of law, in England and North America. Caroline Keenan graduated in law from the University of Sheffield, where she also completed her PhD on the investigation of cases of child abuse. She then lectured in Criminal and Family Law and Criminology at the University of Bristol and the University of Durham, then subsequently at the University of Bristol. In addition to the empirical study on the prosecution of child abuse, An Assessment of the Admissibility and Sufficiency of Evidence in Child Abuse Prosecutions, she was commissioned by the Home Office to conduct a review of the law on sexual offences against children and vulnerable adults which contributed to the law reform enacted by the Sexual Offences Act 2003. She has published widely in the field of child protection law, focusing on family and criminal law and the law relating to the investigation of abuse. Caroline Keenan is currently a visiting Research Fellow in law at the University of Bristol and a member of the Senior Common Room at Wadham College, Oxford.

PART I: THEMES AND QUESTIONS ; 1. Introduction ; PART II: THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR ADJUDICATING ALLEGATIONS ; 2. Family Law ; 3. Liability in Criminal Law ; 4. Liability in Tort and Human Rights Law ; PART III : THE INQUIRY PROCESS ; 5. Investigation and Evalutating Allegations of Abuse ; PART IV: ADJUDICATION OF THE ALLEGATION ; 6. Introduction: Themes and Influences ; 7. Access to Evidence ; 8. The Child Witness ; 9. Testing the Credibility of the Child Complainant ; 10. Testing the Credibility of the Alleged Abuser ; 11. The Admissibility of Expert Evidence ; PART V: CHILD ABUSE LAW AND POLICY: EVALUATION ; 12. Themes and Future Directions