CHILDREN DISCLOSING RITUAL ABUSE

Conclusions

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Influence of talk shows:

In early 1996, one episode of Geraldo dealt with the imprisonment of innocent adults due to children's false memories. Geraldo Rivera stated that in the 1980's he fell for the "Believe the Children" movement, and used his TV shows to promote it. He now knows how wrong he was, and regrets his actions, because he  helped fuel the national hysteria. He added "and that the Repressed Memory Therapy movement is also a bunch of crap".

Conclusions:

Many adults were convicted of sexual crimes against children on the basis of children's testimony, either unsupported or with totally unreliable medical "evidence". Unfortunately, there are still a very few professionals who reject (or have not learned of) the ease with which false memories can be implanted into children. Some still use closed, suggestive questions; some believe that the truth will eventually come out if one interviews the child long enough. Untrained parents still ask direct repeated questions of their children, thus starting the process of implanting memories of non-existent events in the children's minds. A few children still end up with memories of horrible abuse that never happened; they will be affected by these memories for the rest of their lives. Dozens of innocent adults had their lives ruined. At most, they can hope to be found not-guilty. However, they will never be found truly innocent in the eyes of the public.

Over 100 persons were imprisoned in North America for MVMO child sexual abuse crimes that they never committed. In fact, most or all of the crimes probably never happened! Most had their convictions overturned, and were released from prison during the 1990s. A few remained until the 21st century. Gerald "Tookie" Amirault and Paul Ingram, for example, were clearly innocent, and yet remained rotting in jail -- Amirault until 2004.

Fortunately, most prosecutors and social workers are aware of their professions' past errors and are not repeating them in the present. However, a small and shrinking minority of professionals still believe in the reliability of children's memories of ritual abuse. For example, Jeanne Adams, Dawn Mattox and Anne Hart presented a workshop "Childhood Ritual Abuse" at the 7^th International Conference on Family Violence on 2002-SEP-23 to 24 in San Diego, CA. The workshop description stated: "Ritual abuse is the organized, systematic use of children in brutalizing ceremonial acts. Ritual abuse cases are coming into the system through the accounts of adult survivors, in child custody disputes, day care, and isolated neighborhood cases. This workshop includes the participation of a professional woman who came forward as a survivor. She will discuss the cult experience and the governmental mind control experimentation used on children, and will also share her expertise on [sic] child custody disputes with allegations of abuse." ₁

Reference:

1. "7^th International Conference on Family Violence: Working Together to end Abuse," Pre-conference training institutes, 2002-SEP-23 to 24 in San Diego, CA. Co-sponsored by the Family Violence & Sexual Assault Institute, Children's Institute International, and Alliant International University.

Copyright © 1997 and 1999 to 2004 incl., by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2004-JUL-28
Author: B.A. Robinson