The Christchurch Civic Creche Case
	News Reports - Home 2007 Index
	Otago Daily Times June 3 2007 Child Sex Abuse Claims Worthless Letter to the Editor by Dr L J Hood Freda Briggs is at it again - stereotyping and demonising New Zealand males as dangerous sexual predators who cannot be trusted around children (ODT 2 June). The article notes that Ms Briggs has been interviewed by the Adelaide Advertiser, the Brisbane Courier-Mail and the Melbourne Herald-Sun. This information speaks volumes about Ms Briggs flair for self-publicity, but tells us nothing about the problems with her work. One problem is that it is ideologically driven (her support for the bizarre and discredited notion of ritual abuse is but one example of her lack of objectivity). Another problem is that Ms Briggs’ research methods contain no safeguards for weeding out false or exaggerated allegations of child sexual abuse. In my view, Ms Briggs claims about the prevalence of child sexual abuse in New Zealand are worthless, and should be ignored.