The Witch-Hunt Narrative

Abstract

Child sexual abuse became part of the public discourse in 1984 with a series of high-profile criminal cases involving day-care centers. Epitomized by the McMartin Preschool case, this one and dozens of others were eventually seen as “witch-hunts.” Under this view, the charges were the result of suggestive interviewing, overzealous prosecutors, and a gullible press. This is the first scholarly book to challenge that view. Based on fifteen years of original trial court research, it argues that the evidence for the witch-hunt narrative is weak at best, in many cases ignoring significant evidence of abuse and in others ignoring complexity. The McMartin Preschool case, for example, involved a significant injustice to five defendants, but the picture is much murkier for two others. The claim that there were hundreds of these cases across the country is even more misplaced. Indeed, there is an untold history of child sexual abuse that involves minimization and denial, where the witch-hunt narrative claims there was only “hysteria” about the issue. The Kelly Michaels case became a turning point. Academic psychologists helped persuade the court that problems involving “child suggestibility” undermined the entire case. This book argues that this conventional wisdom is incorrect. The final chapter considers recent developments, including Megan’s Law and scandals connected to Penn State and the Roman Catholic Church. The book ends with concerns about expansive views of child suggestibility and the attack on frontline professions providing services to sexually abused children.