Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault: Stranger Rape, Acquaintance Rape, and Intra-familial Child Sexual Assaults

In Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault, Matthew Barry Johnson introduces new directions in wrongful conviction research and understanding. Citing Innocence Project and National Registry of Exoneration data, the book identifies sexual assault as the predominant offense type associated with confirmed wrongful convictions in the US. Johnson outlines the differential risk of wrongful conviction associated with stranger rape, acquaintance rape, and intra-familial child sexual abuse. He also introduces new terms and concepts such as "black box" investigation, illustrating the lack of transparency in the production of prosecution evidence; a four-part stranger rape thesis; and the "moral outrage - moral correction" process that results in cognitive and emotional factors that interfere with the evaluation of criminal evidence. The book also includes chapters on racial bias in rape prosecution, and the relationship of serial sex offending to wrongful conviction. Citing both foundational and newly-introduced conviction research, Johnson illustrates unexamined aspects of well-known wrongful conviction cases (i.e. The Central Park Five, Steve Avery, Ronald Cotton, The Norfolk Four) and presents the lessons from lesser known wrongful convictions. Wrongful Conviction in Sexual Assault provides valuable new perspectives and insight for psychologists, defense lawyers, prosecutors, crime investigators, and social justice scholars.

About the Author

Matthew Barry Johnson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY. In addition to teaching, research, and expert witness work, Professor Johnson served on the ABA Task Force on Mental Disability and the Death Penalty, as well as the Executive Committee of New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty - the lead organization in the successful campaign that abolished the New Jersey death penalty in 2007. He also has appeared on broadcast media outlets discussing wrongful conviction and false confessions.