Characteristics of exonerated cases of child sexual abuse

Exonerations provide insight into how the criminal justice system sometimes fails. Exonerations in child sexual abuse (CSA) cases may be of particular interest as it is often impossible to tell if a crime has truly occurred, many cases lack corroborative evidence, and children's developmental capacity can at times evoke credibility concerns.

Using the National Registry of Exonerations, we examined every known exonerated case of CSA in the United States (N = 339).

We found these cases were similar to substantiated cases in many ways. Case features included a single victim (67.8%), victim recantation (49.0%), delayed disclosure (47.5%), alleged immediate family member or caregiver perpetration (47.2%), allegations of repeated abuse (47.2%), suggestive questioning (21.8%), custodial dispute issues (19.5%), and satanic ritual abuse allegations (15.0%). Several contained corroborative evidence (28.3%), a notable finding we discuss in detail. We found several case features became less common over time (e.g., satanic ritual abuse/hysteria, suggestive questioning, recantation).

While policies guiding the interviewing of children have improved the ways we talk to children, exoneration evidence suggests there is still much to be learned about false accusations and room for improvement. Importantly, case characteristics appear quite similar for true and false allegations. This finding indicates that as interview and investigation protocols have improved in recent years, reducing the likelihood of clear indicators of false allegations, the issues leading to exoneration in CSA cases may now be subtler and more nuanced. As such, case characteristics are not necessarily clear indicators for allegation veracity and every case requires careful attention to detail.