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Flawed Convictions: "Shaken Baby Syndrome" and the Inertia of Injustice

Flawed Convictions: "Shaken Baby Syndrome" and the Inertia of Injustice

Author: Deborah Tuerkheimer
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780190233617

Published In: April 2015
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.S. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9780199913633

List Price: RMB 325.93

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Description
Contents

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The emergence of "Shaken Baby Syndrome" presents an object lesson in the dangers that lie at the intersection of science and criminal law. Understandings of "Shaken Baby Syndrome" have evolved in the context of scientific knowledge. It is now known that the diagnostic triad does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an infant was abused, or that the last person with the baby was responsible for the baby's condition. Nevertheless, our legal system has failed to absorb this new consensus. As a result, innocent parents and caregivers remain incarcerated. More perplexingly, triad-based prosecutions continue even to this day.

Flawed Convictions: "Shaken Baby Syndrome" and the Inertia of Injustice is the first book to survey the scientific, cultural, and legal history of "Shaken Baby Syndrome" from inception to formal dissolution. In this book, Deborah Tuerkheimer exposes extraordinary failings in the criminal justice system's treatment of what is, in essence, a medical diagnosis of murder. Flawed Convictions presents a new perspective on the need for the law to better respond to the scientific contingency. By analyzing the legal response to "Shaken Baby Syndrome" and the existing inadequacies of "science dependent prosecution," Professor Tuerkheimer proposes a path forward for criminal justice, while suggesting a restructuring of the law in order to deal with the uncertainty of scientific knowledge.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE: A MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS OF CRIME

THE PROSECUTION PARADIGM

THE LURE OF BLAME

CHAPTER TWO: COMPLICATIONS

SCRUTINY

THE NEW SBS

DOUBTFUL CONVICTIONS

CHAPTER THREE: THE TRIAD ENDURES

TODAY'S SBS

CHILD ABUSE SPECIALIZATION