Abstract
Most crimes are also civil wrongs, so allegations of criminal wrongdoing are sometimes tested by civil judges who sit without juries, give reasons for their findings of fact, and reach those findings on the balance of probabilities rather than claiming that they are ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. A finding reached by the narrowest margin of probability is as much a ‘fact’ for legal purposes as one that is beyond dispute. As Lord Hoffman put it in one case of alleged child sexual abuse:
If a legal rule requires a fact to be proved […] a judge or jury must decide whether or not it happened. There is no room for a finding that it might have happened. The law operates a binary system in which the only values are zero and one. (Re B 2008:2)1
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© 2012 Tony Ward
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Ward, T. (2012). Narrative and Historical Truth in Delayed Civil Actions for Child Abuse. In: Gregoriou, C. (eds) Constructing Crime. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392083_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392083_4
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