Complainant Credibility in Sexual Offence Cases

Abstract

This chapter examines the Criminal Cases Review Commission's approach to sexual offence cases that tend to present evidence pertaining to the credibility of the complainant. Drawing on forty-six cases reviewed by the Commission during the period 1998–2011, the chapter considers how the Commission establishes complainant credibility by discussing its decision ‘field’ in relation to the changing environment of the ‘surround’. It also explores developments in the field before and after 2006, the Court of Appeal's stance on the type of credibility that might persuade it to quash convictions, and the wider politics and media contribution to the growing concerns about victims of historical sexual abuse. Finally, it analyses the Commission's response to changes in the surround — driven by real experience of victim bashing and evidence of wrongful convictions — and identifies contrasting decision frames: a frame that is sensitive to the changing surround versus a frame concerned with wrongful convictions.