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Child sex abuse
hysteria and the Ellis case |
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September 22 2003 For many years, “sex abuse experts”
have espoused an endless litany of their opinions, assumptions and beliefs. “One
in four girls will be abused before age 16”. “Paedophiles lurk behind every
bush”. “Thousands of cases of father-daughter incest”. “Most rapes never get
reported”. Deborah Coddington¹s book lists
1,868 people convicted of sex offences from 1990 to 2003 (an annual average
of 144). In the same 13-year period, but with little or no credible evidence,
ACC counsellors have submitted over 94,000 new sex abuse claims, averaging
7,231 per year. Expert Ian Hassall asks (Sep 27) “How
common is child sexual abuse, who does it and how can they be identified? What
harm does it do and how can this best be alleviated? How common are false
accusations and retractions and how can they be identified? Is children’s
evidence reliable and how can this be tested? “ Those are facts which “experts”
should know. That they do not know questions their authority, reliability and
probative value. Because they don’t know, it was unreasonable, unprofessional
and improper for them to impose their beliefs on the Ellis case and many
others ones. Some major problems with “sex
abuse experts” are their determination to find abuse whether or not it
exists, their presumption of guilt, their failure to seek alternative common
sense explanations for childhood behaviours, and their failure to find
testable facts. Opinion, belief and assumption are not substitutes for facts. While some cases present obvious
markers of sexual activity, the vast majority rely on the “Her Word Against
His” format and many are proven false. As difficult as it might be, the only
reliable way to determine if sexual abuse occurred is through corroborative
evidence. |
