Lost in Translation The Legal appropriation of the voice of child sexual abuse victims in Ireland A Thesis presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at National University of Ireland, Maynooth By Aine McDonough May 2010 Department of Sociology, NUIM Supervisor: Dr. G. Honor Fagan Contents SUMMARY IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................ V TABLE OF FIGURES ................................................................................................. VII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 2 1.1 Contextualising the study ..................................................................................... 3 1.2 Interrogating the law ............................................................................................ 5 1.3 Justification for the Research ............................................................................... 8 1.4 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 9 1.5 Organisation of thesis ......................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER 2: CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND THE LAW AS A SOCIOLOGICAL CONCERN..... 15 2.1 The prevalence of child abuse ............................................................................ 15 2.2 Uncovering child Sexual abuse ........................................................................... 19 2.3 Documenting child sexual abuse in Ireland ........................................................ 22 2.4 Legal Reasoning ................................................................................................... 27 2.5 Luhmann: Law as a Closed System ..................................................................... 29 2.6 Habermas: Law as a System of Communication ................................................. 32 2.7 Foucault: Law as a System of Discourse / Power / Knowledge .......................... 37 2.8 Feminism: Law as a Patriarchal System .............................................................. 43 2.9 Subaltern: Law as a System of Colonisation ....................................................... 47 CHAPTER 3: KNOWLEDGE, POWER, GENDER AND VOICE IN THE LEGAL ARENA: TOWARDS A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK. ............................................................... 52 3.1 Developing a critical perspective ........................................................................ 53 3.2 Foucault and the critical appraisal of the law ..................................................... 56 3.3 The Discipline Factor ........................................................................................... 60 3.4 Techniques of Domination .................................................................................. 62 3.5 The feminist challenge to traditional legal knowledge ....................................... 65 3.6 Power and resistance in legal discourse ............................................................. 70 3.7 The subaltern voice ............................................................................................. 74 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH ............................................................ 82 4.1 Discourse Analysis as Method ............................................................................ 83 4.2 Description of narrative texts ............................................................................. 86 4.3 Description of legal texts .................................................................................... 92 4.4 Data gathering and analysis ................................................................................ 94 4.5 Application of Method to Appellate Texts ........................................................ 101 4.6 Limitations ......................................................................................................... 103 CHAPTER 5: PERSONAL NARRATIVE AS A SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE ....................... 105 5.1 The victim narrative .......................................................................................... 106 5.2 Identity and the disclosure of emotion in the narratives ................................. 109 i 5.3 Towards resistance ........................................................................................... 129 5.4 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 139 CHAPTER 6: THE PRINCIPLE OF CORROBORATION IN THE PROCESSING OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE CASES ........................................................................................... 142 6.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 142 6.2 The enduring problem of child abuse ............................................................... 144 6.3 The requirement of corroboration ................................................................... 148 6.4 The Hale precedent and its patriarchal legacy ................................................. 152 6.5 Confirming precedent and maintaining control ............................................... 157 6.6 Appropriating tradition to resist change .......................................................... 160 6.7 The power of judicial discretion ....................................................................... 162 6.8 Judge, jury and the principle of corroboration ................................................. 166 6.9 Conclusion: the collision of traditional, contemporary and patriarchal knowledges ............................................................................................................... 171 CHAPTER 7: DELAY AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM ....................................................... 174 7.1 Timeliness of disclosure .................................................................................... 174 7.2 Delayed disclosure and judicial reasoning ........................................................ 178 7.3 Delay and domination ....................................................................................... 182 7.4 Extending the grounds for the ‘delay’ appeal ................................................... 185 7.5 The emergence of new knowledge: a force for justice? .................................. 190 7.6 The concept of ‘delay’ and the justice system .................................................. 199 CHAPTER 8: SENTENCING – JUDICIAL REASONING ABOUT GUILTY MEN ................. 204 8.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 204 8.2 How Cultural knowledge informs judicial knowledge ...................................... 207 8.3 The rationale for judicial sentencing ................................................................ 210 8.4 Rehabilitation and retribution .......................................................................... 215 8.5 Medicalising crime: paedophilia ....................................................................... 218 8.6 Sentencing and the exercise of judicial discretion ........................................... 223 8.7 Victim Impact Statements – a challenge to the system? .................................. 233 8.8 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 238 CHAPTER 9: CONSTRUCTING LEGAL KNOWLEDGE DISCURSIVELY ........................... 242 9.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 242 9.2 Legal framing of the offender ........................................................................... 243 9.3 Legal framing of the victim ............................................................................... 255 9.4 Toward a more victim-centred legal approach................................................... 268 9.5. Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 271 CHAPTER 10: LOST IN TRANSLATION: THE LEGAL APPROPRIATION OF THE EXPERIENCE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ................................................................... 273 10.1 The Child’s Story................................................................................................ 276 10.2 Discourse and strategies that silence ............................................................... 279 10.3 Knowledge and theoretical considerations ...................................................... 284 10.4 Victim as subaltern- theory and colonised voice .............................................. 290 ii 10.5 Areas Requiring Future Research ...................................................................... 293 APPENDICES ......................................................................................................... 295 Appendix 1: Relevant section of Irish Constitution .................................................. 295 Appendix 2: 2 Cases from Different Decades .......................................................... 298 Appendix 3: Data Method ....................................................................................... 302 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................... 322 iii Summary This thesis sets out to examine the way in which legal reasoning