The health professional faced with the conflict between the victim's allegations and the in dubio pro reo in rape of vulnerable people Tércio Neves de Almeida

Abstract

 Considering the disparity between persecution and defense in crimes of rape has been repeatedly demonstrated in the courts, where victim's allegations assumes relevant importance. Psychology must position itself above all in protecting the vulnerable victims and looking for possible uncertainties about the culpability of the accused. Adopt as a starting point of the analysis the possibility of absolution, still due to doubt. and never relegating the in dubio pro reo principle to a secondary plane, by admitting that the account of a supposedly offended person should prevail in the confrontation with the defensive version. From judgments, many distortions result from attributing legal capacity to children’s testimonies. Supposing they are defending vulnerable people against abusers, fantasies are often legitimized, the false memories of children’s stories, which end up being adopted as true versions. The role of health professionals is fundamental to analyze the parties and try, from a scientific perspective, to diagnose the veracity of the allegations. The role of professionals has great importance in all stages and situations related to sexual abuse, especially when the victims are children and young people. This article is a qualitative research – bibliographic.