Special Accusation Types

Abstract

Straight accusations are considered a normal case for accusations with special accusation types referring to other forms of accusations. Three special accusation types wil be considered: anonymous accusations, non-evidential accusations, and self-accusations. Anonymous accusations (AA's) are accusations with an anonymous accuser. We describe the remarkable effects which anonymous accusations may have, and we propose various key properties of anonymous accusations: (i) the viral character of AA's, (ii) the potentially explosive effect of AA's, and (iii) the forensic challenge creation characteristic of AA's. These characteristics suggest, and in may contexts impose, rather restrictive rules of engagement for dealing with AA's. Secondly we describe non-evidential accusations (NEA's). Such accusations do not allow any meaningful form of validation of the body of the accusation. Nevertheless NEA's play a significant role nowadays. Finally we provide some remarks on self-accusations. A self-accusation may also be non-evidential.