Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justice

The children’s “words” have acquired inasmuch importance as, in judicial affairs of intra-family sexual abuse, there are, most of the time, neither evidence nor confession but instead contradictory versions. The author shows how, in the Outreau case, the children’s words have not been really listene...

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Main Author: Jean-Pierre Durif-Varembont
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: L’Harmattan 2008-05-01
Series:Droit et Cultures
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/1379
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author Jean-Pierre Durif-Varembont
author_facet Jean-Pierre Durif-Varembont
author_sort Jean-Pierre Durif-Varembont
collection DOAJ
description The children’s “words” have acquired inasmuch importance as, in judicial affairs of intra-family sexual abuse, there are, most of the time, neither evidence nor confession but instead contradictory versions. The author shows how, in the Outreau case, the children’s words have not been really listened to because conditions for a real understanding by adults – laymen or justice professionals – were missing. In this article, analysing the treatment of these words allows to emphasize the necessary consideration of numerous data such as the circumstances of disclosing the facts, the family context, the characteristics of the narrative and the evolution of potential symptoms. But the controversial concept of credibility, revealing the social ambivalence and the difficulty of applying the doubt, must remain the responsibility of the judges and not of the clinical experts. The latter must, starting from elements collected in a specific relation, describe the psychological processes functioning in a child, between fantasy and reality.
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spelling doaj.art-8479aa75131141899f3cf81f54dcf7282022-12-21T19:17:01ZfraL’HarmattanDroit et Cultures0247-97882109-94212008-05-0155201219Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justiceJean-Pierre Durif-VarembontThe children’s “words” have acquired inasmuch importance as, in judicial affairs of intra-family sexual abuse, there are, most of the time, neither evidence nor confession but instead contradictory versions. The author shows how, in the Outreau case, the children’s words have not been really listened to because conditions for a real understanding by adults – laymen or justice professionals – were missing. In this article, analysing the treatment of these words allows to emphasize the necessary consideration of numerous data such as the circumstances of disclosing the facts, the family context, the characteristics of the narrative and the evolution of potential symptoms. But the controversial concept of credibility, revealing the social ambivalence and the difficulty of applying the doubt, must remain the responsibility of the judges and not of the clinical experts. The latter must, starting from elements collected in a specific relation, describe the psychological processes functioning in a child, between fantasy and reality.http://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/1379Children as victimsJusticeOutreauPsychiatric examinationSexual abuseWords
spellingShingle Jean-Pierre Durif-Varembont
Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justice
Droit et Cultures
Children as victims
Justice
Outreau
Psychiatric examination
Sexual abuse
Words
title Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justice
title_full Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justice
title_fullStr Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justice
title_full_unstemmed Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justice
title_short Parole de l’enfant et parole à l’enfant en justice
title_sort parole de l enfant et parole a l enfant en justice
topic Children as victims
Justice
Outreau
Psychiatric examination
Sexual abuse
Words
url http://journals.openedition.org/droitcultures/1379
work_keys_str_mv AT jeanpierredurifvarembont paroledelenfantetparolealenfantenjustice