State v. Towe’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “approximately 70 to 75 percent of children who have been sexually abused have no abnormal findings, meaning that the exams are either completely normal or [sic] very non-specific findings, such as redness.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 263 N.C. App. 510 - State v. Casey · 243 N.C. App. 728 - State v. Harris

2. “In the absence of physical evidence of sexual abuse in this case, the only bases for [the expert's] conclusory assertion that the victim had been sexually abused were the victim's history as relayed to [the expert] by the victim's mother and the victim's statements to [the social worker] that were observed by [the expert]-evidence that, standing alone, is insufficient to support an expert opinion that a child was sexually abused.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 243 N.C. App. 728 - State v. Harris

3. “However, if a proper foundation has been laid, an expert may testify about the characteristics of sexually abused children and whether an alleged victim exhibits such characteristics.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 256 N.C. App. 596 - State v. Spinks