Preface
Part One:
The Rise of the Witch-Hunt Narrative
Chapter 1 Introduction: The Infamous Child Sexual Abuse Cases of
the 1980s
Chapter 2 The McMartin Preschool Case (1983-1990)
Chapter 3 Scrutinizing the Evidence of a National "Witch Hunt"
Chapter 4 History Ignored: Silence, Denial and Minimization
Part One Conclusion
Part Two:
The Triumph of the Witch-Hunt Narrative
Chapter 5 The Turning Point: State v. Michaels
Chapter 6 Going to Extremes: State v. Fuster
Part Two Conclusion
Part Three:
Recent Developments
Chapter 7 The Legacy of the Witch-Hunt Narrative
Acknowledgments
Bibliographic Notes
Acknowledgements
Ross E. Cheit is Professor of Public Policy and Political Science at Brown University.
"But what if the skeptics went too far? What if some of the
children were really abused? And what if the legacy of these cases
is a disturbing tendency to disbelieve children who say they are
being molested? Those are the questions that frame this new book by
Ross E. Cheit, a political scientist at Brown University who spent
nearly 15 years on research, poring over old trial transcripts and
interview tapes." --New York Times
"The most important book on its subject in the last thirty years.
Most legal efforts to address multiple sexual abuse of children
have been strangled at birth since the collapse of the McMartin
daycare trial and the assaults on child credibility that followed.
Ross Cheit's exacting, calm, close inquiry into the early trials
and the media firestorm around them uncovers both grounds for
believing the children and the often despicable tactics of the
deniers...
Cheit shows that the real hysteria lies in the denial of the abuse.
If evidence and logic matter, this book will change how allegations
of sexual violation of children by adults -- ground zero of
sexual
abuse and arguably of gender inequality -- are socially understood
and legally addressed." --Catharine A. MacKinnon, University of
Michigan Law School and Harvard Law School
"Ross Cheit has done masterful job of finding the facts buried in
the mythology of what happened in the high profile sexual abuse
cases of the 1980's and brings a degree of balance to our
understanding of these sentinel events." --Charles Wilson, MSSW
Senior Director and Sam and Rose Stein Endowed Chair in Child
Protection, Chadwick Center for Children & Families, Rady
Children's Hospital - San Diego
"Ross Cheit has written a book that must be read by anyone seeking
to go beyond the headlines of the multiple victim child abuse cases
of the 1980's and 90's and the witch-hunt narrative that grew up
around them. Through methodical research into the transcripts of
the trials that apparently was never done by the purveyors of that
theory, Cheit sheds light on details of the McMartin, Kelly
Michaels and Frank Fuster cases that were ignored when they didn't
fit
the narrative... The book is not easy, but is required reading for
all who seek to understand the dynamics of child abuse cases and
the hysteria that can arise and lead to misinformation, skewed
journalism and injustice for children who have been abused and for
adults falsely accused of child abuse." --Judge Judith C. Chirlin,
Los Angeles Superior Court (Retired)
"[Cheit] recounts evidence with scholarly precision that is
emotionally engaging and eminently readable... [his] book is a tour
de force against the witch-hunt fabulists and those suggestible
enough to believe them." --The Providence Journal
"As Gloria Steinem has said multiple times, we can try to save
people from drowning one at a time, or go to the top of the river
where they are falling in, and prevent these mishaps from happening
at all. Cheit is at the top of the river. Now, psychologists need
to come together and get there too." --PsycCRITIQUES
"Professor Cheit's thorough and informative tome certainly does its
part to combat the overreaction and misdirection that it so
carefully documents and criticizes." --Harvard Law Review
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