Day-care sex-abuse hysteria

Day care sex abuse hysteria was a phenomenon of the 1980s involving false accusations of sexual abuse. A prominent case in Kern County, California began the phenomenon, which lasted for almost a decade. The Kern county case began a wave of copycat accusations that started in California and spread thoughout the country. Some elements of the witch hunts of the 1600s, and the red scare of the 1950s have parallels in the sex abuse hysteria.

Kern county child abuse cases

The Kern county child abuse case was the first prominent instance of accusations of ritualized sex abuse of children. It was in 1982 in Kern County, California when Debbie and Alvin McCuan were accused of abusing their children. The initial charges were made by Mary Ann Barbour, the children's step-grandmother, to the police. Barbour had a history of mental illness. The authorities used coercive techniques to get the children to tell of abuse by their parents. In 1982, the girls further accused McCuan's defense witnesses: Scott Kniffen, his wife Brenda, and his mother. Mary Ann Barbour reported that the children had been used for prostitution, used in child pornography, tortured, made to watch snuff films, and forced to let animals eat food out of their vaginas. The McCuans and the Kniffens, were each sentenced to over 240 years in prison in 1984. Their convictions were overturned in 1996.

McMartin preschool trial

The McMartin preschool trial started in 1983 when a mother with a history of false accusations accused the McMartin family of sexually abusing her child. After seven years of criminal trials, no convictions were obtained, and all charges were dropped in 1990. It is one of the most famous of all the sexual abuse cases and it is, as of 2006, the longest and most expensive trial in the history of the United States. The accusations involved instances of hidden tunnels, killing animals, and orgies.

Fells Acres Day Care Center

The Fells Acres Day Care Center was in 1984, when a 5-year old boy told a family member that Gerald Amirault, the bus driver at the Fells Acres day care center, had touched his penis. The boy's mother notified the authorities and Gerald was arrested. The children told stories which included being abused by a clown and a robot in a secret room at the day care center. They told of watching animals being sacrificed, and one girl claimed Gerald had penetrated her anus with the twelve-inch blade of a knife. In the 1986 trial, Gerald was convicted and sentenced to 30 to 40 years in state prison. He was released in 2004.

Wee Care Nursery School

The Wee Care Nursery School in Maplewood, New Jersey in April of 1985. A nurse took the temperature of a 4-year-old boy with a rectal thermometer and the boy said: "That's what my teacher does to me at nap time at school." The comment was reported to the local authorities. The children were interviewed and the following accusations were heard from the children: 23 year old Kelly Michaels forced the children to lick peanut butter off her genitals and that she penetrated their rectums and vaginas with knives, forks and other objects. In August of 1988 after 11-months of trial, she was convicted of 115 counts of sexual abuse and sentenced to 47 years in the New Jersey state prison. After five years in prison her appeal was successful and she was released. The New Jersey Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision and declared "the interviews of the children were highly improper and utilized coercive and unduly suggestive methods."

Cleveland, England child abuse scandal

In the Cleveland child abuse scandal allegations of child sexual abuse were being made by Marietta Higgs, a pediatrician at a Middlesbrough, United Kingdom hospital. Using a technique known as reflex anal dilatation, in 1987 she diagnosed 121 children as victims of sexual abuse. Once the allegations had been made, social workers were compelled by law to remove the children from their families and place them in foster care. Initially public opinion favored the doctor and the social workers but as the number of cases increased a public inquiry was enacted, led by Elizabeth Butler-Sloss. The courts dismissed most of the cases.

Little Rascals Day Care Center

The Little Rascals Day Care Center was in Edenton, North Carolina. In April of 1989 Bob Kelley was arrested and charged with child sexual abuse. By the end of the investigation 6 other people were charged, including a woman who was in a child custody case with her police officer husband, who had no connection to the facility or the Kelleys. On May 23, 1997, the prosecution dropped all charges related to the Little Rascals case against Bob Kelley and his wife.

Causes

Some experts note that the anxiety over leaving young children with strangers, paired with the creation of large numbers of day care centers and more mothers taking jobs created a climate of guilt. They also note that children do not necessarily make good witnesses, they are open to suggestibility, and false memories can be implanted by repeating information in a forceful manner.

Timeline

• 1982 Kern county child abuse case
• 1983 McMartin preschool trial in California
• 1984 Fells Acres Day Care Center
• 1985 Wee Care Nursery School in New Jersey in April
• 1987 Cleveland child abuse scandal in England
• 1989 Little Rascals Day Care Center scandal in Edenton, North Carolina
• 1990 All charges dropped in McMartin preschool trial
• 1996 Convictions in the Kern county child abuse case overturned

See also

• Moral panics
• Salem witch trial