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It has been suggested that Wee Care Nursery School and Talk:Day care sex abuse hysteria#Merge proposal with Wee Care Nursery School be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since January 2008.

Template:POV-title Day care sex abuse hysteria occurred in the 1980s and early 1990s. This occurred mainly in the United States, with some cases in Canada and New Zealand. A prominent case in Kern County, California first brought the issue of day care sexual abuse to the fore in the public consciousness, and the issue figured prominently in news coverage for almost a decade.

The Kern county case was followed by a wave of similar accusations that started in California and spread throughout the United States, as well as to Canada, New Zealand and some European countries.

Significant cases

Kern county child abuse cases

The Kern County child abuse case was the first prominent instance of accusations of ritualized sex abuse of children. In 1982 in Kern County, California, Debbie and Alvin McCuan were accused of abusing their own children. The initial charges were made by Mary Ann Barbour, the children's step-grandmother. Barbour had a history of mental illness. The authorities used coercive techniques to get the children to tell of abuse by their parents. In 1982, the girls further accused McCuan's defense witnesses: Scott Kniffen, his wife Brenda, and his mother. Mary Ann Barbour reported that the children had been used for prostitution, used in child pornography, tortured, made to watch snuff films. The McCuans and the Kniffens were each sentenced to over 240 years in prison in 1984. Their convictions were overturned in 1996.

McMartin preschool trial

"The case began in August 1983 when the mother of a 2 1/2 year-old boy reported to police that her son had been abused by Raymond Buckey at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California." After seven years of criminal trials, no convictions were obtained, and all charges were dropped in 1990. As of 2006, it is the longest and most expensive trial in the history of the United States. The accusations involved hidden tunnels, killing animals, Satan worship, and orgies.

Nine of 11 jurors at a press conference following the trial stated that they believed the children's testimony. These same jurors stated that they believed that the evidence did not allow them to state who had committed the abuse beyond a reasonable doubt.

In 2005, newspapers reported that a former student had completely retracted his story and said he lied, attempting to protect his younger siblings and to please his parents.

In The Devil in The Nursery, Margaret Talbot for the New York Times summarized the case:

When you once believed something that now strikes you as absurd, even unhinged, it can be almost impossible to summon that feeling of credulity again. Maybe that is why it is easier for most of us to forget, rather than to try and explain, the Satanic-abuse scare that gripped this country in the early 80's -- the myth that Devil-worshipers had set up shop in our day-care centers, where their clever adepts were raping and sodomizing children, practicing ritual sacrifice, shedding their clothes, drinking blood and eating feces, all unnoticed by parents, neighbors and the authorities.

David Heckler, author of The Battle and the Backlash - The Child Sexual Abuse War, states:

“What happened at the McMartin Preschool will be debated for a long time. Few aspects of the case are clear, but it requires no strain of credulity to believe that the children could have been abused at the facility without being diagnosed by a pediatrician.”

Dade County Day Care Center

Miami-Dade County, Florida state's attorney Janet Reno crafted a "children's rights" approach to the prosecution of several suspected child abusers during her reelection campaign in 1984. Hundreds of prosecutors nationwide patterned themselves after her systematic style, including some of the other examples listed here.

Starting in 1984, Reno used Joseph and Laurie Braga, two self-styled experts at interviewing children, to gain most of the "confessions" from the children. The Bragas coerced numerous children into confessions that were thrown out on appeal in both state and federal courts years later. One federal judge described the confessions as "fundamentally unfair." Some of the kids later admitted that they confessed only because they were told other children claimed abuse, and that they were tired of being told "I don't believe you," and "because I was getting tired ... I told a lie."

Fells Acres Day Care Center

The incident began in 1984, when a 5-year-old boy told a family member that Gerald Amirault, administrator and handyman at the Fells Acres day care center, had touched his penis. The boy's mother notified the authorities, and Gerald was arrested. The children told stories which included being abused by a clown and a robot in a secret room at the day care center. They told of watching animals being sacrificed, and one girl claimed Gerald had penetrated her anus with the twelve-inch blade of a knife (which left no injuries).

”All nine children testified in a broadly consistent way...The children testified to numerous instances of sexual abuse...The children testified that the defendant threatened them and told them that their families would be harmed if they told anyone about the abuse”

In the 1986 trial, Gerald was convicted and sentenced to thirty to forty years in state prison. He was released in 2004. In 1995 the chief prosecutor of both of the Amirault cases responded to a critical series of articles in the Wall Street Journal by Dorothy Rabinowitz. He stated that "the children testified to being photographed and molested by acts that included penetration by objects" and "the implication ... that the children's allegations of abuse were tainted by improper interviewing is groundless and not true."

The Bronx Five

In The Bronx, prosecutor Mario Merola, convicted five men, including Nathaniel Grady, a 47 year-old Methodist minister, of sexually abusing children in day care centers throughout the Bronx.

Praca Day Care

Three employees of a Bronx day-care center were arrested in August, 1994 on the charges of abusing at least ten children in their care. Federal and city investigators then questioned dozens of children at the day care. They used “dolls, gentle words and a quiet approach.”More children reported being sexually abused, raising the total to 30. “Three more city-financed day care centers” also were investigated for sexual abuse.On August 11, 1984, it was reported that federal funds had been cut off to the Head Start preschool program at the Praca Day Care Center and now four employees had been arrested.In June, 1985 the day care center was reopened with new sponsorship.In January 1986, Albert Algarin, employed at the Praca Day Care center, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for “raping and sexually abusing five children.” It was reported in May 1986 that Jesus Torres, a former teacher’s aide at the Praca Day Care “was sentenced to 40 years in prison yesterday for sexually assaulting two boys at the center.” ”Franklin Beauchamp who had been “convicted of nine counts of rape, sexual abuse and sodomy involving three children at Praca,”had his case overturned in New York state’s highest state court in May 1989. “ The State Court of Appeals ruled that the indictment used to obtain his 1986 conviction was duplicitous, or not specific enough.”On a web page from Frontline Innocence Lost Other Well-Known Cases PBS, it is stated that the “remaining defendants eventually had their convictions overturned as well."

Wee Care Nursery School

It started in Maplewood, New Jersey in April of 1985. Margaret Kelly Michaels was indicted for 299 offenses in connection with the sexual assault of of 33 children. Michaels denied the charges. "The prosecution produced expert witnesses who said that almost all the children displayed symptoms of sexual abuse." Prosecution witnesses testified that the children "had regressed into such behavior as bed-wetting and defecating in their clothing. The witnesses said the children became afraid to be left alone or to stay in the dark." Some of the other teachers testified against her. "The defense argued that Miss Michaels did not have the time or opportunity to go to a location where all the activities could have taken place without someone seeing her." Michaels was sentenced to 47 years in the "sex case." Michaels "told the judge that she was confident her conviction would be overturned on appeal." After five years in prison her appeal was successful and sentence was overturned by a New Jersey appeals court. The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision and declared "the interviews of the children were highly improper and utilized coercive and unduly suggestive methods." A three judge panel ruled she had been denied a fair trial, because "the prosecution of the case had relied on testimony that should have been excluded because it improperly used an expert's theory, called the child sexual abuse accommodation syndrome, to establish guilt." The original judge was also criticized "for the way in which he allowed the children to give televised testimony from his chambers."

Cleveland child abuse scandal

The allegations of child sexual abuse were being made by Marietta Higgs, a pediatrician at a Middlesbrough, United Kingdom hospital. Using a technique known as reflex anal dilatation, in 1987 she diagnosed 121 children as victims of sexual abuse. Once the allegations had been made, social workers were compelled by law to remove the children from their families and place them in foster care. Initially public opinion favored the doctor and the social workers but as the number of cases increased a public inquiry was enacted, led by Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. The courts dismissed some of the cases but others were tried and prosecuted.

Glendale Montessori

In 1989, James Toward, owner of Glendale Montessori School in Stuart, Florida, pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges and received a 27-year sentence. His office manager, Brenda Williams, 30, was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. James Toward is still being held in Civil Commitment due to the Jimmy Ryce Act. Children described being threatened with guns and knives, photographed for pornographic purposes, and forced to participate in sadistic rituals. (Miami Herald, June 15, 1989). Toward and Williams were accused of kidnapping and sexually abusing six boys who attended Glendale as preschoolers in 1986 and 1987. Hearsay testimonies were to be permitted during the trial, and although he maintained his innocence, Toward plea-bargained to avoid a seemingly certain life sentence. (Palm Beach Post, June 15, 1989). Many parents and former co-workers supported Toward's innocence. One parent's statement in the Martin Circuit Court about how the defense interviewed her child: "I think he felt that he was being called a liar through most of the deposition." (Palm Beach Post, February 7, 1989). As a result of this case, the state of Florida passed a bill in 1993, changing the state law to allow victims of child abuse more time to file claims with the state's Victim's Compensation Fund for money to help pay for counseling and other needed treatment. (Palm Beach Post, February 5, 1993). The doctor of the first child "victim" in the case was named Dr. Alan Tesson. Tesson was sued in 1996 for $650,000 for implanting false memories of satanic ritual abuse and child pornography in an adult patient. (Palm Beach Post, February 6, 2000).

Little Rascals Day Care Center

In April of 1989 in Edenton, North Carolina, Robert Kelley was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse. “Robert F. Kelly Jr....face(d) 187 counts, including having sexual intercourse with children and with other adults in front of them. His wife, Betsy, 36, and five other adults face(d) similar charges.” By the end of the investigation 6 other people were charged, including a woman who was in a child custody case with her police officer husband, who had no connection to the facility or the Kelleys. The children testified that they were forced to have sex and their parents testified that "their children exhibited abnormal behavior." "Robert Kelly Jr. was convicted of 99 of 100 counts of rape and related crimes against children." The jury believed the children on the witness stand. One juror stated “the children were convincing.” Kelly and his supporters believed he was innocent. On May 23, 1997, the prosecution dropped all charges related to the Little Rascals case against Bob Kelley and his wife.

Dale Akiki

Akiki, 36, in 1991 had Noonan's syndrome. He was recently married and was arrested in May of 1991. He and his wife were volunteer baby-sitters at Faith Chapel in Spring Valley, California. On each Sunday, they would keep an eye on the children while their parents were attending services in the church next door. The accusations started when a young girl told her mother that "He showed me him's penis." The mother contacted the police. After interviews, nine other children accused Akiki of killing animals and drinking their blood in front of the children. He was found innocent of the 35 counts of child abuse and kidnapping in his 1993 trial. Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).

Wenatchee sex ring

In Wenatchee, Washington in 1994 and 1995 police and state social workers undertook what was then called the nation's most extensive child sex-abuse investigation. Forty-three adults were arrested on 29,726 charges of child sex abuse involving 60 children. Parents, Sunday school teachers and a pastor were charged and many were convicted of abusing their own children or the children of others in the community. Dr. Deborah Harper testified in the trial "One girl showed definite medical signs of sexual abuse and it could not be ruled out for two others." However, prosecutors were unable to provide any physical evidence to support the charges. The main witness was the 13-year-old foster daughter of a police officer, Robert Perez, who had investigated the cases. A consultant, retired Bellevue Police Chief D.P. Van Blaricom, hired by a city insurer who looked into how the Wenatchee police ran the child abuse investigations stated that the cases were handled properly. A Justice Department investigation also found that was no evidence of civil rights violations. However, a jury found the city of Wenatchee and Douglas County, Washington negligent in the 1994-1995 investigations. They awarded $3 million to the couple who had been wrongly accused in the inquiry.

Causes

Guilt

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In the late 1970s and early 1980s, more and more mothers were working outside of the home, resulting in the opening of large numbers of day-care centers. Anxiety and guilt over leaving young children with strangers may have created a climate of fear and readiness to believe false accusations. There was also the problems of using leading questions, that can create false memories in young children.

John Myers, a Professor of Law at McGeorge Law School states:

"At the time McMartin and Michaels began, there was very little awareness of the special issues that arise in questioning children about abuse....When it comes to credibility, children are no different than adults. There are credible children and credible adults. By the same token, there are incredible adults and incredible children. It is clear from the literature on child development that by the time most children are four years old, they possess the moral, cognitive, and linguistic capacity to be credible witnesses in court."

In The Devil in The Nursery, Margaret Talbot for the New York Times writes:

Our willingness to believe in ritual abuse was grounded in anxiety about putting children in day care at a time when mothers were entering the work force in unprecedented numbers. It was as though there were some dark, self-defeating relief in trading niggling everyday doubts about our children's care for our absolute worst fears -- for a story with monsters, not just human beings who didn't always treat our kids exactly as we would like; for a fate so horrific and bizarre that no parent, no matter how vigilant, could have ever prevented it.

False allegations when interviewing children

While it was not fully understood at the time of these cases, subsequent research has shed light on the inherent difficulty associated with child testimony. In particular, it has become clear that children are very vulnerable to outside influences that lead to fabrication of testimony. Such testimony can be influenced in a variety of ways.

Some studies suggest that children incorporate aspects of the interviewer’s questions into their answers in an attempt to tell the interviewer what the child believes is being sought. This contention has been disputed, however. Studies also show that when adults ask children questions that do not make sense (such as “Is milk bigger than water?” or “Is red heavier than yellow?”), most children will offer an answer, believing that there is an answer to be given (rather than understand the absurdity of the question). Furthermore, repeated questioning of children causes them to change their answers. This is because the children perceive the repeated questioning as a sign that they did not give the “correct” answer previously. Children are also especially susceptible to leading and suggestive questions.

Interviewer bias also plays a role in shaping child testimony. When an interviewer has a preconceived notion as to the truth of the matter being investigated, the questioning is conducted in a manner to extract statements that support these beliefs. As a result, evidence that could disprove the belief is never sought by the interviewer. Additionally, positive reinforcement by the interviewer can taint child testimony. Often such reinforcement is given to encourage a spirit of cooperation by the child, but the impartial tone can quickly disappear as the interviewer nods, smiles, or offers verbal encouragement to “helpful” statements. Some studies show that when interviewers make reassuring statements to child witnesses, the children are more likely to fabricate stories of past events that never occurred.

Peer pressure also influences children to fabricate stories. Studies show that when a child witness is told that his or her friends have already testified that certain events occurred, the child witness was more likely to create a matching story. The status of the interviewer can also influence a child’s testimony – the more authority an interviewer has (such as a police officer), the more likely a child is to comply with that person’s agenda.

Finally, while there are supporters of the use of anatomically correct dolls in questioning victims of sexual abuse/molestation, there are also critics of this practice. Critics argue that because of the novelty of the dolls, children will act out sexually explicit acts with the dolls even if the child has not been sexually abused. Another criticism is that because the studies that compare the differences between how abused and non-abused children play with these dolls are conflicting (some studies suggest that sexually abused children play with anatomically correct dolls in a more sexually explicit manner than non-abused children, while other studies suggest that there is no correlation), it is impossible to interpret what is meant by how a child plays with these dolls.

Timeline

• 1982 Kern county child abuse case
• 1983 McMartin preschool trial in California
• 1984 Fells Acres Day Care Center
• 1985 Wee Care Nursery School in New Jersey in April
• 1987 Cleveland child abuse scandal in England
• 1989 Glendale Montessori sexual abuse case in Stuart, Florida
• 1989 Little Rascals Day Care Center scandal in Edenton, North Carolina
• 1990 All charges dropped in McMartin preschool trial
• 1991 Christchurch Civic Creche
• 1992 Martensville Scandal, Martensville, Saskatchewan, Canada
• 1994 start of Wenatchee Sex Rings case
• 1996 Convictions in the Kern county child abuse case overturned

See also

• False allegation of child sexual abuse
• Child sexual abuse
• Repressed memory
• False memories
• Moral panic
• Salem witch trials
• Satanic ritual abuse

References

1. ^ "Innocence Lost, The Plea". Frontline. Retrieved 2007-10-31. The McMartin Preschool case was one of the earliest and largest child sexual abuse cases in this country. Although none of those charged were ever convicted, the 28-month trial was the longest and costliest criminal prosecution in U.S. history. This case is often cited as triggering the wave of pre-school sexual abuse cases during the mid-1980s. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
2. "Parole Board recommends Amirault's commutation" (courtesy link from Truth in Justice). Associated Press. July 6, 2001. Retrieved 2007-10-31. The Amiraults always insisted they were innocent, the victims of a sex abuse hysteria that swept the country in the 1980s and questionable testimony from child witnesses. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
3. "Who Was Abused?". New York Times. September 19, 2004. Retrieved 2007-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
4. "Los Angeles Pressing Inquiry Into Sexual Abuse Of Children". Associated Press. April 1, 1984. Retrieved 2007-07-21. To the children at the Virginia McMartin Preschool, it was The Hollywood Game or Naked Movie Star. Adults use more sophisticated terms to describe the sexual games the children were reported to have played with trusted teachers, such as pedophilia, felony child abuse, child pornography. Despite stricter laws against the sexual abuse of children, three cases pending in Los Angeles alone indicate that trafficking in children for pleasure or profit has not disappeared. Seven defendants, including 76-year-old Virginia McMartin, who founded the school in 1956; her daughter, granddaughter and grandson, are scheduled to be arraigned Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. They face a total of 115 counts of having sexual relations with children as young as 2 years old at the preschool center in suburban Manhattan Beach. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
5. "Tapes of Children Decided the Case for Most Jurors". Los Angeles Times. Friday, January 19, 1990. pp. A1 and A2. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
6. "McMartin Preschool accuser recants" (archive). Los Angeles Times Magazine. October 30, 2005. Retrieved 2007-10-31. One of the 360 children who made accusations says he lied to protect his siblings and was never raped....Saying he lied to please his parents...one of the children who claimed he was molested at the notorious McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach more than 20 years ago has recanted his original story. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
7. ^ Talbot, Margaret (January 7, 2001). "The Lives They Lived: 01-07-01: Peggy McMartin Buckey, b. 1926; The Devil in The Nursery" (reprint from New America). New York Times. Retrieved 2007-07-21. Buckey's ordeal began in 1983, when the mother of a 2 1/2-year-old who attended the McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California, called the police to report that her son had been sodomized there. It didn't matter that the woman was eventually found to be a paranoid schizophrenic, and that the accusations she made -- of teachers who took children on airplane rides to Palm Springs and lured them into a labyrinth of underground tunnels where the accused "flew in the air" and others were "all dressed up as witches" ... {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
8. Hechler, David (1988). The Battle and the Backlash - The Child Sexual Abuse War. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books. ISBN 0-669-14097-x. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
9. "Commonweath v. Amirault, Middlesex" (scanned reprint). 424 Mass. 618. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
10. "Commonweath v. Amirault" (scanned reprints). 424 Mass. 618. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
11. "Day Care Workers Get Retrial, As Accusers Did Not Face Them". New York Times. August 30, 1995. Retrieved 2007-07-21. A judge ruled today that two women convicted of sexually abusing children at a suburban day care center in the 1980s should be granted a new trial because some of their child accusers were allowed to face away from them while testifying. The judge, Robert A. Barton of Lowell Superior Court, also set a bail hearing for Thursday for the women, Violet Amirault and her daughter, Cheryl Amirault LeFave, who have been jailed since they were convicted in 1987. The women could be released from prison while awaiting the new trial. Prosecutors said they would appeal. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
12. Rabinowitz, Dorothy (January 30, 1995). "A Darkness in Massachusetts". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-10-31. On Labor Day 1984, 60-year-old Violet Amirault, proprietor of the thriving Fells Acres Day School in Malden, Massachusetts, received a call about a child abuse accusation against her son. Two days later the police arrested 31-year-old Gerald (who worked at Fells Acres) on charges of raping a five-year-old boy, a new pupil. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
13. Rabinowitz, Dorothy (March 14, 1995). "A Darkness in Massachusetts--II". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2007-10-31. A few months after Violet and Cheryl Amirault were imprisoned for committing, the State alleged, barbarous sexual assaults on small children, the prosecutors sponsored a seminar titled "The Fells Acres Day School Case--A Model Multidisciplinary Response." {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
14. Hardoon, Larry (January 24, 1995). "Letters to the Editor: The Real Darkness Is Child Abuse". Wall Street Journal. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
15. "20th-century witch hunt". Associated Press. December 1, 1996. The Rev. Nathaniel Grady, a pious man and a fiery orator, was born to do the Lord's work. As a boy, he walked to Sunday school hand-in-hand with his mother and sister. As an adult, he became a Methodist minister, shepherding a devoted flock in the rugged East Bronx while fostering friendships with judges, bishops, police chiefs, an ex-governor. Yet, prosecutors ignored Nat Grady's past when he was accused in 1984 of sexually abusing a half-dozen ... {{cite news}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
16. Berger, J. (August 3, 1984). "3 SEIZED IN CHILD ABUSE AT BRONX CENTER". New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
17. McFadden, R. (August 5, 1984). "SEARCH FOR WITNESSES WIDENS IN INQUIRY ON DAY-CARE CENTER". New York Times. Retrieved 1-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
18. Purdum, T. (August 7, 1984). "18 MORE CHILDREN CITE SEXUAL ABUSE". New York Times. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
19. Purdum, T. (August 9, 1984). "SEXUAL ABUSE IS INVESTIGATED AT 3 MORE DAY-CARE CENTERS". New York Times. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
20. "BRONX DAY-CARE CENTER HAS U.S. FUNDS CUT OFF". Associated Press. New York Times. August 11, 1984. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
21. Douglas, C. (June 1, 1985). "CHILD-CARE CENTER REOPENS, BURYING THE TALES OF ABUSE". New York Times. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
22. "Day Care Worker Gets 50 Years for Sex Crimes". Associated Press. New York Times. January 16, 1986. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
23. "Day-Care Sex Assaults Bring 30-Year Sentence". New York Times. May 2,, 1986. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
24. "Prosecutor Won't Seek New Abuse Charges". Associated Press. New York Times. September 21, 1989. Retrieved 01-14-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
25. "DAY-CARE WORKER HELD IN ASSAULTS ON CHILDREN". New York Times. December 8, 1985. Retrieved 01-21-08. An employee of a day-care center in Maplewood, N.J., has been indicted for 229 offenses in connection with the sexual assault of 33 children between 3 and 6 years of age over a 6-month period. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
26. NARVAEZ, A. (February 28, 1988). "Former Day-Care Teacher Denies Sexually Abusing Schoolchildren". New York Times. Retrieved 01-21-08. A former day-care center teacher being tried on charges of sexually abusing 20 children in her care testified in her defense this week and denied ever having had sexual contact with the 3- 4- and 5-year-old youngsters. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
27. ^ NARVAEZ, A. (March 29, 1988). "Legal Arguments End in Jersey Child-Abuse Trial". New York Times. Retrieved 01-21-08. Legal arguments in the nine-month trial of a day-care teacher accused of sexually abusing 20 children at a center in Maplewood ended here today. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
28. ^ Rangel, J. (August 3, 1988). "Ex-Preschool Teacher Sentenced To 47 Years in Sex Case in Jersey". New York Times. Retrieved 01-21-08. A former preschool teacher was sentenced today to 47 years in prison for sexually assaulting 19 children and endangering the welfare of another child in a day-care center in Maplewood {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
29. "Recovered Reputations". New York Times. April 6, 2003. Retrieved 2007-09-25. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |1= and |coauthors= (help)
30. ^ Fiason, F. (March 27, 1993). "Child-Abuse Conviction Of Woman Is Overturned". New York Times. Retrieved 01-21-08. A New Jersey appeals court yesterday overturned the conviction of Margaret Kelly Michaels, who was accused of sexually abusing 19 children at a day-care center in Maplewood, and who was sentenced to 47 years in prison after a celebrated trial in 1988. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
31. Smothers, R. (August 19, 1991). "Child-Abuse Case Is Ordeal for a Town". New York Times. Retrieved 12-22-07. Not since the McMartin Preschool case in Los Angeles have there been so many charges of abuse involving so many children. Robert F. Kelly Jr., the 43-year-old former co-owner of the Little Rascals Day Care Center, faces 187 counts, including having sexual intercourse with children and with other adults in front of them. His wife, Betsy, 36, and five other adults face similar charges. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
32. Rosenfeld, M. (April 23, 1992). "Child Abuse Conviction in Day Care Case;N.C. Man Was Subject of Sympathetic Documentary". Washington Post. Retrieved 12-22-07. The children testified that Kelly forced them to have oral and anal sex, made them have sex with each other while pictures were taken and engaged them in other sex acts. Children also said Kelly had sex with other adults in front of them. But prosecutors said they didn't find any pictures. Parents testified that their children exhibited abnormal behavior, such as fear of going into bathrooms, masturbating in front of adults and night terrors. Kelly's ex-wife, Janey Kelly, who has since changed her name to Kelli de Sante, also testified, saying she found child pornography addressed to Kelly in a post office box. Kelly, who denied all the charges against him, also took the stand. He testified that he liked adult pornography, but not anything to do with children. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
33. ^ Mayfield, M. (April 23, 1992). "Man convicted in N.C. child sex abuse case". USA TODAY. Retrieved 12-22-07. Robert Kelly Jr. was convicted of 99 of 100 counts of rape and related crimes against children - ending a key phase of North Carolina's protracted Little Rascals day-care case. National child-abuse groups called the verdict in the case a landmark victory, particularly for its testimony from children. We've come a long way ... in the meticulous way in which everything was handled, said Deborah Daro of the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse. We've learned how to interview children more effectively, how to elicit responses without leading them on. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
34. "Day-Care Owner Is Convicted of Child Molesting". New York Times. April 23, 1992. Retrieved 2007-08-21. The longest and costliest criminal trial ever held in North Carolina ended today when the owner of a day-care center was convicted on 99 of 100 charges of sexually abusing 12 children there. After 14 days of deliberating, a Pitt County Superior Court jury found the 44-year-old defendant, Robert F. Kelly Jr., guilty of 4 counts of rape, 46 of taking indecent liberties, 36 of first-degree sexual offense and 13 crimes against nature. He was acquitted only of a single charge of taking indecent liberties with one of the 12 children. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
35. "Doctor confirms abuse in sex-ring case" (scanned reprint). Associated Press. December 5, 1996. One girl showed definite medical signs of sexual abuse and it could not be ruled for two others, a defense witness testified (Dr Deborah Harper)...in the child rape and molestation trial of a Pentacostal preacher and his wife ... Prosecutors allege unordained pastor Robert "Roby" Roberson and his wife, Connie, has sex with children at the East Wenatchee Pentacostal Church of God House and Prayer and at their home. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
36. "Pastor and Wife Are Acquitted on All Charges in Sex-Abuse Case". New York Times. December 12, 1995. Retrieved 2007-07-21. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
37. "Consultant finds no fault in sex ring probe" (scanned reprint). Associated Press in Tri-City Herald. February 221996. pp. A7. A Spokane County jury yesterday found the city of Wenatchee and Douglas County negligent in the now-discredited 1994-1995 Wenatchee child sex ring investigations, awarding $3 million to a couple who had been wrongly accused in the inquiry. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
38. "Jury finds city, county negligent in child sex ring case". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Wednesday, August 1, 2001. Retrieved 2007-11-26. A Spokane County jury yesterday found the city of Wenatchee and Douglas County negligent in the now-discredited 1994-1995 Wenatchee child sex ring investigations, awarding $3 million to a couple who had been wrongly accused in the inquiry. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
39. Pendergrast, Mark. Victims of Memory: Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered Lives. ISBN 0942679180. "It seems had something to do with this fear that we'd turned our kids over to total strangers," sociologist Catherine Beckett says ... {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
40. John Myers. "The Child terror". Frontline. Retrieved 2007-10-31. During the first six decades of the 20th Century, the level of doubt and skepticism about allegations of CSA were at unrealistic and destructively high levels. During the late 1970s and 1980s, however, society was much more accepting of the fact that CSA is a serious social problem. Beginning in the early 1990s, a backlash of sorts emerged against the child protection system. Although this backlash has not substantially undermined efforts by the child protection and legal systems to investigate and prosecute CSA, it my belief that the level of doubt about children's credibility and about the prevalence of CSA is once again on the rise, and could return to levels that are sufficiently high to undermine efforts to protect children. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
41. Sherrie Bourg Carter, Children in the Courtroom (2005) (hereinafter “Carter”), p.21.
42. Ceci, Stephen J. (1995). Jeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific Analysis of Children’s Testimony. ISBN 1557986320. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
43. Ceci and Bruck, p.78.
44. Lucy S. McGough, Child Witnesses: Fragile Voices in the American Legal System (1994), p.72.
45. Ceci and Bruck, p.79.
46. Carter, p.21.
47. Ceci and Bruck, p.79.
48. Ceci and Bruck, p.81.
49. Ceci and Bruck, p.140.
50. Ceci and Bruck, p.146-47.
51. Ceci and Bruck, p.152.
52. Ceci and Bruck, p.162.
53. Ceci and Bruck, p.162.
54. Ceci and Bruck, p.162.

External links

• Child abuse and neglect at New York Times

Further reading

• Lyon, Kathryn (1998). Witch Hunt: A True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice. Avon Books. ISBN 0380790661. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

• Articles to be merged from January 2008
• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from December 2007
• Mass hysteria
• Day care sexual abuse hysteria