I am among those who agree that false accusation happens with some regularity and that a just legal system must scrutinize accusations closely and avoid sloganeering about “believing the victim.” But if we jam cases implausibly into a false-accusation mold, we not only do a serious disservice to genuine victims, but also cause listeners to tune out our voices when we call attention to the next McMartin or Fells Acres outrage.

I think both sides have had their say at this point and are unlikely to convince each other, so I am going to close the thread and let us move on to other topics.

The literature is clear and beyond all doubt. Repressed memory theory is junk science. The belief that every third child or so is molested doesn’t make sense.

One other aspect to these cases is the variability of the crime. In New York, one priest was accused of “hugging me too hard”.

I am pleased to see others speak up about what I term “community madness” cases. The history of the cases are well understood, and the accusations against Jerry Sandusky are by fellows expecting a house for his mother and a jeep foe himself and by fellows who said their fancy-pants lawyers were to help with the media. What really upset me is when the authorities took Dawn Williams’ baby from her in the Little rascals case. That harm was real whereas the belief in rampant child molestation is just imaginings.

I don’t think the case was ever about McQueary. And someone correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t they give a not guilty finding on his evidence? This case was about lots of kids coming forward and saying this man did awful things to me. Lots of them. Now his adopted son, too. And this dispute in these comments is about whether children should be disbelieved because they didn’t pipe up right away? This dispute is about whether we should be mocking the reliance on child witness and comparing using children as witnesses to the Salem witch trials. It is about fundamental decency.

To be falsely accused of child molestation… I mean, can you imagine? It would be awful, right? Still, the much, much great crime is a child being abused. How many children have been abused in this country for everyone who has been successfully framed? I’d bet my paycheck it is far greater than 10,000 to 1. We have a country of 311 million people. There are thousand of people in jail right now of crimes they did not commit of all types. It is awful. But singling about abuse victims and saying there are uniquely lacking in credibility because they did not come forward right away (and claiming that is repressed memory) and because they are children is criminally irresponsible and absolutely makes me sick.

Hugo, just do me a favor and do what I asked: show this stuff to your friends and family.

PS: I am agnostic/uninformed about the Sandusky case. I thought McQueary’s accusation sounded credible, but have not followed the details of the case since then.

And how many high profile cases of child abuse have been tossed out years later due to various reasons? McMartin Preschool, Wenatchee WA, Miami-Dade County (where the then-DA was one Janet Reno), Boston (where one such case popped up as the Democratic candidate for US Senate was an ADA who inherited a mass-abuse case which had been discredited)…and many more?

How do we know that such cases like the Roman Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts, and even the Sandusky case will not be revisited under similar circumstances years later and found wanting?

At the very least, when a case like these comes up, one should be somewhat skeptical. (Now, to Ron Miller: Do I deny that child abuse happens? NO..)

All of these children come forward…. man takes 17 seconds to answer the question of whether he is sexually attracted to children… and you want the standard to be that if a child does not come immediately forward and say he is molested… There is a certain crack pot element on here. But this is so over the top.

Is there anyone else – particularly you regular commenters – who want to chime in? Let’s get everyone’s crazy aunts and uncles out of their respective attics and basements, and figure out who is who.

The other evidence was hearsay from a janitor who is now incompetent, McQueary’s statement, and a picture of a hotel where a molestation was alleged.

An interesting aspect to the child accusation cases is the general absurdity of testimony. The fellow who provided videos to the Little Rascals day care center had a salt pond in his back yard that held sharks. the man would take the sharks to the bay in the evening and Mr. Bob would feed baby parts to the sharks from a boat. All the accusers in the Little Rascals case were counseled by Ms. Judy.

Obviously no one can say how much testimony in child abuse cases is true. There are many cases where it isn’t. One case I know of concerned a mother who smoked. Her child claimed that she extinguished her cigarettes on his body. I heard that claim in my youth when smoking was more acceptable. Sometimes children will brush against a lit cigarette when they do their crawling around on a parent. The mother has to pay a chaperon when she visits her son. A divorce was involved and getting her declared unfit helped the father stay in the United States.

We do have real data about false identifications in rape charges. The percentages are startling.

When a person’s liberty is at stake, we should avoid Oprah-Show psychobabble.

…

You people are stone nuts.