![\"130306Oberschall\"](\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/130306Oberschall.jpg\")
March 7, 2013<\/p>\nMarch 7, 2013<\/p>\n
Anthony Oberschall\u2019s\u00a0\u201cWhy False Beliefs Prevail<\/a>: the Little Rascals Child Sex Abuse Prosecutions\u201d appeared in \u201cEssays in Honor of Raymond Boudon\u201d (2000).<\/p>\n Most saliently, the UNC sociologist argues that \u201chysteria\u201d and \u201cmoral panic\u201d are inadequate to describe what happened in Edenton. Rather, he sees the town \u2013 and the Little Rascals defendants \u2013 as victims of the purveyors of \u201cpseudoscience\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen child sexual abuse became a national issue, the medical profession, academic psychology and social science were just starting to study it scientifically…. The legal profession lacked experience with trial testimony of pre-schoolers and admission of hearsay testimony by parents and therapists….Meanwhile thousands of child sex abuse allegations had to be dealt with.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the absence of proven knowledge, a child sex abuse industry of self-appointed \u2018experts\u2019 based on pseudo-science filled the demand for training and informing child protection service workers, social workers, police investigators, prosecutors, therapists and others…. They were convinced they were saving America\u2019s children, even though their methods and knowledge were contrary to science and to common sense. In Edenton, the prosecution and the investigators relentlessly labored to supplant common sense with false beliefs based on pseudo-science, (and) they succeeded….\u201d<\/p>\n Working with UNC journalism student David Loomis on his\u00a0master\u2019s thesis<\/a>\u00a0detailing news coverage of the case, Oberschall \u201ctried to survey Edenton households by mail (picked names at random from a phone book), but got less than a 10 percent return rate. It was obvious people there didn\u2019t want anything to do with an outsider, a scholar.\u201d<\/p>\n