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  • TO KNOW OR NOT TO KNOW Ost Gillespie IntRevVict

    Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, International Review of Victimology, 25 (2), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the International Review of Victimology page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/IRV on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/

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    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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To know or not to know: should crimes regarding photographs of their child sexual abuse be disclosed to now-adult, unknowing victims?

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>1/05/2019
<mark>Journal</mark>International Review of Victimology
Issue number2
Volume25
Number of pages25
Pages (from-to)223-247
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date17/12/18
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper considers the unexplored question of whether unaware crime victims have rights or interests in knowing and not knowing information pertaining to the crime(s) committed against them. Our specific focus is on whether crimes regarding abusive images (AI) should be disclosed to now-adult victims of child sexual abuse who feature in them. Because these issues have not been addressed in the victimology or criminological literature, we utilise literature in another discipline - health care ethics and law - to inform our analysis. Through engaging with the debate on the right to know and not to know information concerning one’s genetic status, we develop a conceptualisation of the issues regarding unknowing AI victims. A rights-based conceptualisation proves to be largely inappropriate; we contend that, instead, it would be more productive to look to unknowing AI victims’ interests. We argue that the interests at stake are grounded in autonomy and/or spatial privacy, and that in order to find a way to resolve the disclosure dilemma, these interests must be considered alongside consequentialist concerns; disclosing information regarding AI could empower now-adult victims but could well cause them (further) harm. Finally, we consider the implications of our analysis for victimology.

Bibliographic note

The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, International Review of Victimology, 25 (2), 2018, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2018 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the International Review of Victimology page: http://journals.sagepub.com/home/IRV on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/