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The Sunday News
May 12 1996
Sex, lies and videos
by Paulette Crowley
Adults
often wrongly accused of abuse: study
Children have been shown to make up stories about innocent adults sexually
abusing them in a scientific study backed by video evidence.
Dr Jane Rawls, a Hamilton
clinical child psychologist who is often called as an expert witness in court
cases, questioned and filmed 30 five-year-olds being questioned by a man.
Two weeks later when she asked them about the sessions:
* 24 per cent reported they'd been inappropriately touched by the man.
* 10 per cent reported they'd been touched on their genitals.
* 7 per cent reported having their bottom touched.
* Another 7 per cent said they'd been touched under their clothes.
The study was funded with $49,000 from the New Zealand Law Foundation, a
charitable trust funded by the legal profession.
Each child had four video sessions with the male researcher.
Felicity Goodyear-Smith, who runs the Casualties of Sexual Allegations lobby
group, said the research had serious implications for the interviewing and
testimony of children who claimed they'd been sexually abused.
She said: "The results are particularly alarming as these children had
never been involved in any sexual abuse allegations, and the questioning used
in the research was not trying to elicit information about inappropriate
touching by (the researcher). . .
"The sessions involved small amounts of touching when items such as
jewellery and hats were put on or taken off each other.
"Sometimes the children were asked to keep a minor benign (innocent)
event secret."
Goodyear-Smith said when the children were asked what truth, lies and
promises were, only 40 per cent had acceptable definitions.
They were then asked where touching occurred, using a body outline chart.
She said the false answers were "alarming".
Some children had difficulty estimating how long ago the sessions were -
answers ranged from "yesterday" to "five months ago".
The children embellished events ". . . and included claims such as
climbing ladders, having other children present, going into other rooms and
tickling with feathers," she said.
When the children were asked about the "secret" they'd been told,
some refused to tell.
However, 17 per cent of the children described untrue events including
inappropriate touching and said these were the "programmed"
secrets.
Goodyear-Smith called for an inquiry and review of adult-child interviewing
techniques and the reliability of uncorroborated evidence.
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