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The imaginary "sex rings" in Wenatchee, WA

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Quotations:

Overview:

The child abuse hoaxes at Bakersfield, CA  and Manhattan Beach, CA in 1983 were the first large scale Multi-Victim / Multi-Offender (MVMO) cases in North America, that were based on sexual and ritual abuse events that never happened. Many observers hoped that the 1996 sex ring hoax at Wenatchee, WA would prove to be the last in the series.

Two and a half decades have now passed since the two California hoaxes surfaced. Most child psychologists, police investigators etc. have learned how easy it is for children to be coaxed to disclose details of sexual and ritual abuse events that never happened. All that is required is repeated, direct questioning by an adults. If the front-line professionals are unaware of this trap, then most DA's offices are now certainly cognizant of the hazards of incompetent questioning of children. There are many examples of disclosures of non-existent abuse, leading to a community panic, mass trials of innocent adults, and eventual multi-million dollar lawsuits by those same adults. If the DA's offices are unaware of recent history in this field, defense attorneys certainly are.

With luck, there may be no further false MVMO cases in North America. They will be recognized as as groundless community panics and never get to trial.

Note:

Since the Wenatchee hoax of 1996, no more sex-ring accusations of the "Wenatchee class" in North America have surfaced. However, one did emerge in Lewis Island, Scotland in the fall of 2003. Meanwhile, the main preconditions for the Wenatchee fiasco are present in every municipality in the U.S.:

Hopefully, child protective services and law enforcement -- and above all, the public -- are now familiar with the abuses in Wenatchee and will prevent its recurrence elsewhere. However, massive moral panics have a long history in the U.S., going back at least to the Salem, MA witchhunts in late 17th century. There is no good indication that the nation has learned from its past mistakes. Some new type of moral panic probably exists on the horizon.

Topics covered in this section:

A book about the Wenatchee Witch hunt:

Kathryn Lyon: "Witch Hunt: The true story of social hysteria and abused justice," (1998). Read reviews or order this book It appears to be currently out of print. As of late 2007, you can buy a used copy for $0.01 plus shipping at Amazon.com marketplace. This book is by a lawyer and public defender. A reviewer at Amazon.com wrote:

"Kathy Lyon's book "Witchhunt" has ripped open a festering lesion of Washington state abuses. This boil of corruption in the Washington state child care agency is rampant county by county, the same practiced behavior of social workers and detectives, therapist, judges, and state appointed attorney's involved in the Wenatchee cases are a practiced pattern in every county in the State." 

Amazon.com customers gave this book a 4 star rating out of 5.