Confronting Supreme Confusion: Balancing Defendants' Confrontation Clause Rights Against the Need to Protect Child Abuse Victims

How can society successfully prosecute child abuse cases without infringing upon the rights guaranteed to the accused child abuser under the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution? The problem arises with increasing frequency. Typically the accused is either related to, or is otherwise familiar with, the young child the accused has been charged wit molesting. In most cases, a young victim of sexual abuse is the only percipient witness to the crime, although there may exist corroborating circumstantial evidence.

Although circumstantial evidence may be compelling, the child's account of the incident is often required to meet the legal standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt necessary to convict the defendant.