Domande frequenti

In the 1970s,the rise of the feminist movement led the public and law enforcement to give much more attention to sex-abuse investigations and encouraged more victims to come forwards to report (prior to this, in California pedophilia and incest were largely treated as a mental illness to be treated rather than a crime to be punished). The law was also changed so that a victim's past sexual history could not be brought into the courtroom, which gave adult victims more confidence to pursue allegations. This was heavily influenced by a best-selling book, "Michelle Remembers", that detailed the Satanic and sexual abuse of a young girl who had only recalled it as an adult while undergoing treatment for multiple-personality disorder. As part of this, doctors created a checklist of physical symptoms which confirmed child sexual abuse, and detectives and social workers developed interview techniques for child victims, using methods such as anatomically-correct dolls and puppets to coax traumatized and intimidated child witnesses into testifying.

It was widely considered that children would be incapable of lying about such subjects so their testimony alone was considered to be enough to charge and convict suspects, even without any corroborating evidence such as forensics, adult witnesses, pictures, confessions, etc. There was also widespread hysteria amongst the press and public which placed huge pressure upon the police and judiciary to prosecute (in the McMartin trial the police wrote to the school's parents and asked them to question their own children which produced an immediate outcry). The huge number of cases also overwhelmed the system and the prosecution sought to deny the defence access to the child witnesses as it was felt it would be too traumatic for them and intimidate them into dropping their allegations.

The medical checklist for child sexual abuse was later totally discredited with research proving that non-abused children could exhibit the exact same characteristics. It was also proven that children could lie about sexual abuse, especially if they were coaxed by adults or subjected to leading questions during interview (having been told that the children had been medically confirmed as having suffered abuse detectives and social workers would repeatedly and aggressively interview them believing that they were breaking down barriers of denial and recovering repressed memories). The allegations in 'Michelle Remembers' were revealed to be the result of hypnosis and drug therapy and psychiatrists abandoned recovered memory therapy after being subject to numerous lawsuits from the victims of false allegations.

Nowadays sexual abuse investigations are kept strictly private and medical evidence is much more sophisticated. The use of dolls and puppets is strictly prohibited and detectives and social workers have strict rules on neutral interviewing techniques and the conditions under which they can be applied. The FBI conducted a wide ranging investigation and concluded that there was no widespread Satanic child abuse conspiracy.