Comment by pdonis
2 years ago
> Of course, this can be, like in this case, wrongly applied to disastrous effects. But it has also saved many children from abusive parents
So what is the relative frequency of these two outcomes? You can't ignore the wrong applications; if they outnumber the proper ones, then the system is doing more harm than good.
I don't know, but this particular case is actually quite uncommon. I forgot to mention this, but apart from everything else, this is a case where the justice system actually followed the opinions and recommendations of actual experts - except that those experts seem to be very wrong on this topic.
So, in this particular case, I would say that the justice system did it's job quite well, and it's a massive failure of the medical system that shaken baby syndrome is still identified as a real thing by real, board-certified doctors.
"The system" is not just the justice system. If the justice system is relying on wrong evaluations by experts, that's still the system doing harm instead of good. And if it is known that so-called "experts" in a field can get things this wrong, the justice system should not be relying on their confident assertions.