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The
Listener
October 11-17 2003
Published October 4, 2003
Child abuse and the experts
Letter to the Editor
Michael Corballis,
(Department of Psychology, University of Auckland)
My colleague John
Read (Letters, September 27) evidently disagrees with my attempt to defend
psychology against its poor reputation in some quarters, and in so doing
neatly illustrates the split within our discipline, There are some signs,
though, that the rift may be beginning to heal, at least on the international
front
The American Psychological Association, whose membership is dominated by
professionals, this year singled out Professors Stephen J Ceci and Elizabeth
F Loftus for the joint award of Distinguished Scientific Applications of
Psychology. Both could have contributed genuinely expert advice in the Ellis
case.
Ian Hassall (Letters, September 27) rightly notes that I have not published
anything on child abuse or children as witnesses. On the latter topic, Ceci's
work is highly relevant, and if Hassall wants information on the effects of
sexual abuse, a good place to start might be the meta-analysis published by Bruce
Rind and colleagues in the January 1998 issue of the Psychological Bulletin.
Sexual abuse can indeed be harmful, but I suspect that it is the physical
abuse of children that is the greater social problem in our country.
Perhaps, too, we should take greater care not to send innocent people to
gaol.
The Listener
October 11-17 2003
Published October 4, 2003
Child abuse and the experts
Letter to the Editor
Lynley Hood, (Kew, Dunedin)
Not for the first time, Dr John Read has misrepresented my comments, To Brian
Edwards's bizarre assertion (Edwards at
Large, TV1, August 16) "What are you telling me here - that the
flatness of the city gives us some indication of the chances of Peter Ellis
getting a fair trial?", I replied, "No. I am not I am not making
that leap at all."
Although the flatness of Christchurch cannot be denied, as readers of A City Possessed know, a ritual-abuse
case could have happened anywhere in New Zealand in the early 1990s. At that
time, Christchurch was a centre for national initiatives in the investigation
and prosecution of child sexual abuse, and a belief that a phantom paedophile
ring was operating in the city was one of the prevailing urban myths. These
factors increased the risk that a ritual-abuse case would occur in Christchurch.
The
Listener
October 11-17 2003
Published October 4, 2003
Child abuse and the experts
Letter to the Editor
Jacqueline Martin (Tauranga)
Two Wellington
women have won Privy Council backing to sue a social worker and psychologist
who removed them from their father in 1988 after false allegations of abuse.
Even today Child, Youth and Family workers remove children from their home on
anonymous, opinion-based and even false information, leaving parents to
defend accusations that are not proven and thus hard to defend.
The Privy Council said, "False allegations can cause the utmost distress
to persons wrongly accused of abuse, the effects on the child can be
incalculable."
New Zealand courts protect unproven accusations, saying that child-protection
workers investigating abuse allegations may overlook the best interests of
the child if they know their actions might be subject to scrutiny in a
damages action: "Immediate action might be needed to protect a child on
the basis of limited information... such workers should not have to fear a
lawsuit for doing their job."
Let's always protect the workers, not always the children and their families! What a joke!
People who knowingly putting false or inaccurate notifications into CYF need
to be held accountable. Maybe then our child-protection workers can do their
job properly and real abuse cases would get the attention they deserve.
The
Listener
October 11-17 2003
Published October 4, 2003
Child abuse and the experts
Letter to the Editor
Robert P O'Shea
Chair, EPC'04 Organising Committee,
Department of Psychology, University of Otago (Dunedin)
Professor
Corballis in "Memory & the law" (September 13) is to be thanked
for his clear analysis of the issues for psychology of the Peter Ellis case.
If readers want to learn the latest research on human memory, along with
other aspects of psychology, they are welcome to attend the conference
Corballis mentioned.
The Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference is coming to New Zealand,
April 16-18, 2004, for the first time in its 31-year history. It is is open
to all who register. Details are available at http://psy.otago.ac.nz/epc/
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