Sept. 6, 2013
“The day-care trials couldn’t have happened without the active participation of social workers and therapists. Police authorities relied on the therapists to interpret what the child witnesses were saying, to interview the children and to counsel them about their alleged experiences. One might suppose that the realization that:
- People have been sent to prison for years for crimes that never happened;
- Children had been abused, not by the accused, but by misguided therapists who implanted false memories;
would have created a huge mea culpa among the professionals involved. This hasn’t happened.
“Some have defended their actions, if not the results, on the basis that their hearts were in the right place. Some have excused themselves on the basis that nobody knew any better – that, by golly, nobody could have guessed that rewarding children for making accusations, and questioning them until they did make accusations, might just lead to false accusations.
“And they speak, in self-pitying tones, about the ‘backlash’ – the (presumably) undeserved and irrational criticism that is flung their way.”
– From “The ‘Ritual Abuse’ Panic” at Imaginary Crimes
Mum’s still the word from the prosecution therapists in the Little Rascals case, except for Judy Abbott’s resentful response to the “backlash.”