Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors

Successfully navigate the minefield of misinformation that can prevent justice from being done in child sexual abuse cases

From the Foreword, by Robert Geffner, PhD, editor of the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse: "Too often, the public and some professionals have been misled by media publicity and articles . . . that appear scientific, but in reality, are biased opinions or over-generalized research. Forensic cases are being decided in many courts based upon the recommendations of so-called ''expert witnesses''who do not actually know the clinical research or understand the dynamics of such abusive relationships."

This much-needed book points out and corrects misinformation that everyone who works with victims, offenders, or families in which sexual abuse has occurred needs to understand clearly. Especially vital in today''s political climate, Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors gives you state-of-the-science information on such myths as "false memory syndrome," "recovered memory therapy," and the "lack of harm" to some sexually abused boys.

Misinformation Concerning Child Sexual Abuse and Adult Survivors examines:

• forensic issues, including the "false memory" defense and how the long-term impact of childhood sexual abuse is often misrepresented in court
• three separate expert examinations of Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman''s well-known--and often misrepresented--review of long-term child sexual abuse outcomes
• treatment recommendations and guidelines for addressing the memory controversy in clinical practice
• the fascinating case history/cautionary tale of the child molester Robert Halsey, who was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences in 1993, and how public and academic resources were misused to claim he was wrongly convicted

Charles L. Whitfield, MD, FASAM, is in private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a member of the Leadership Council on Mental Health, Justice, and the Media, and on the faculty of the Rutgers Institute on Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey., Joyanna Silberg, PhD, is a clinician at Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore, Maryland, and is Executive Vice President of the Leadership Council for Mental Health, Justice, and the Media. She is also President of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation., Pau, Jay Fink, MD, a psychiatrist in private practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is President of the Leadership Council for Mental Health, Justice, and the Media, and is a past president of the American Psychiatric Association.