Mitchell v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[fy social worker] testified that this sexual abuse accommodation syndrome was generally accepted by “clinicians” without specifying what clinicians she referred to, but there was no medical testimony .of any nature whatsoever that this syndrome has become. a generally accepted medical concept. , . . [[Image here]] There was no testimony that all children who are sexually abused exhibit these symptoms, nor was there testimony that children who have not been sexually abused do not' sometimes exhibit some of the elements of the syndrome. There was no testimony that sexual abuse by other persons than the accused could not have produced the same symptoms in the victims.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. King v. Commonwealth

2. ““There was no evidence that the so-called ‘sexual abuse accommodation syndrome’ has attained a scientific acceptance or credibility among clinical psychologists or psychiatrists. Even should it become accepted, ... there would remain the question of whether other children who had not been similarly [sexually] abused might also develop the same symptoms or traits.” Lantrip, supra, 713 S.W.2d at 817 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dyer v. Commonwealth

3. “child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hellstrom v. Commonwealth