CHILDREN RITUAL ABUSE TESTIMONY AND IMPLANTED MEMORIES
Starting in 1983 with the Bakersfield/Kern County and McMartin
Preschool cases in California and continuing to the present day in
Edenton NC and Wenatchee WA, there have been a series of high
profile MVMO (Multiple Victim, Multiple Offender) panics at day
schools, baby sitting services and church Sunday schools. All have
involved allegations of sexual abuse; almost all have also included ritual abuse.
A key ingredient in all MVMO panics that we have studied is the
method used to interview the children. Social workers and child
psychologists typically used direct and repeated questioning in
order to manipulate the child to disclose abuse. It is apparent that
many of the events that they describe did not actually happen.
Believing the children, the juries vote to convict. (1)
Are the Children Telling the Truth?
Yes. In court, they almost always testify accurately of events as
they remember them to be. The problem is that the events that they
remember may not have happened to them.
Many child psychiatrists, social workers and police who have
been involved in the many MVMO abuse cases appear to accept the
following belief system:
children very rarely lie about abuse, but they
are often reluctant to disclose what has happened to them. Their
memories are accurate, because memory works something like a VCR.
The child accesses the correct "tape", "fast forwards" to the event
in question, and is able to review the full details of the abuse.
Sometimes the image is a bit snowy; sometimes the fine details are
blurred, but the recollection is generally quite accurate. But
because young people do not want to tell, they must be repeatedly
questioned before the truth comes out. The interview will often
involve suggestive questioning, prompting and manipulation by the
therapist, based upon her past experience and reading. The child may
be rewarded for "correct" answers and ridiculed for "incorrect"
ones. Implanting of false memories is either impossible or very
unlikely. Audio or video recordings of interviews are not needed.
The therapist or investigator need only write down a description of
the child's final disclosure, not the questioning process.
Memory researchers generally have contrary
beliefs: children very rarely lie when
they spontaneously disclose abuse on their own. But if they are
exposed to some investigation techniques, they often disclose
stories of events that never happened. If the interviewer or parent
asks the same question repeatedly, some children will conclude that
they are not giving the "right" answer and will create a new story
to satisfy the adult. Sometimes they can be induced to do so through
a system of praise and rewards for correct answers and ridicule or
penalty for wrong answers. Often, it is simply enough to ask direct
questions. Once made, such disclosures can become implanted as
memories in children's minds. Memory is quite inexact, and is easily
overlaid with false recollections. The more the past is revisited,
the more definite those overlaid memories become. The longer the
investigation, and the more suggestive and direct techniques used,
and the younger the child is, the more likely it is that children
will describe events that never happened and that "false" memories
will be implanted. These memories feel quite real to the child, who
accepts them as valid recollections of real events in their past.
Audio and video recordings of the interview(s) are of great
importance, in order to assess whether memory implantation possibly
happened.
MVMO trials are often war zones where expert witnesses representing
both belief systems battle each other in front of the jury.
How Easy is it to Implant False Memories in Children?
Memory researchers who study children's memories are finding that
ideas and memories can be easily implanted. (2) An increasing
percentage of social workers and police are accepting this evidence.
They still believe that children rarely lie when they
disclose abuse on their own or in response to general questions,
like: "What happened during that class">? But they realize
that false memories of events that never happened can be easily
created in children. Studies indicate that younger children are more
liable to disclose false allegations of abuse than are older people.
This may account for the large number of MVMO cases involving day
care and baby-sitting facilities, and the few involving regular
school or Sunday school students.
North American Research:
Drs. Ceci and Bruck (3) reviewed all available literature on
children's suggestibility and memory. Their 1995 book includes
excerpts covering 300 years of testimony, from the Salem Witch
trials to the recent Little Rascal's day care case in Edenton NC.
They concluded:
- preschool children are more suggestible than older children
- suggestive and repetitive questions can lead the children to describe
events that never happened to them
- non-abused children can create memories of being molested, using source
materials supplied by other children
- children who are asked to visualize how an event might have happened to
them can emerge from counselling with false memories that they were abused.
- there is no way to later separate accurate from false memories of
children who were interviewed using defective techniques
- all interviews of children should be recorded; interviewer's notes have
been shown to be inadequate
- the use of "anatomically correct dolls" with very young children is not recommended
- "expert" witnesses often reach conflicting conclusions as to the reality
of abuse after reviewing interview records.
Dr. Bruck and Ceci cite a number of interesting studies:
Since a typical MVMO investigation might involve interviews of 100
children, one might conclude from the Saywitz study that on average
3 would disclose nonexistent vaginal abuse and 6 would disclose
nonexistent anal abuse in response to a simple direct question. One
direct question to each child would generate 9 false charges per 100 children!
New Zealand Research
Dr. Jane Rawls, a child psychologist from Hamilton New Zealand,
conducted a study of 30 five-year-old children. (7) The goal of the
study was to determine how accurately children describe events that
they had experienced. Trevor, an adult male research assistant,
played "dress-up" with each child separately. The adult and child
put on or took off items such as hats or jewelry. The sessions were
observed and videotaped. Sometimes, the child would be asked to keep
a secret of an innocent event. No inappropriate touching was
involved at any time. This was repeated for 4 sessions per
child. Each child was then interviewed on multiple occasions.
Dr. Rawls was amazed and "unhappily surprised" at the results:
- 7 of the 30 children (23%) said that they had been inappropriately touched:
- 3 disclosed genital touching
- 2 reported touching under their upper clothes
- 2 said that he had touched "their bottoms" or vice versa
- 2 reported mutual touching under their clothing
- children's "errors appeared to evolve" during subsequent interviews
- the children created many new errors when a diagram of body parts was
introduced during the second interview
- closed, suggestive questions (e.g. "Did he touch you on the...")
generated the most errors
- open questions (e.g. "What happened then?") produced an accuracy
of 32% during the first interview; closed questions were 9% accurate; mixed
questions were 20% accurate.
- None of the children told the "secret" without prompting; 23% did not
disclose the secret when prompted; 20% consistently provided accurate
description of the secret when prompted.
The scary part of this study is that under different circumstances,
Trevor could easily have been prosecuted on the basis of 7
children's stories and given many lengthy sentences. This study is
believed to be the first one of its type involving many dozens of
children who were interviewed over long periods of time. It seems to
show the dangers of repeated and suggestive questioning of children.
It demonstrates how easy it is to obtain disclosures from children
of sexual abuse events that never happened. It sheds doubt on the
use of body diagrams and anatomically correct dolls. It seems to
indicate the extreme unreliability of suggestive, closed, and
persistent questioning. To our knowledge, this study has yet to be
published. It is of extreme importance that the study be replicated
by others so that an accurate appreciation of the accuracy of
children's testimony can be understood.
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 was
wrong and helped fuel the national hysteria. He added "and that
Repressed Memory Therapy is a bunch of crap too".
Indications that False Memories have been Implanted
One excellent indicator was reported by the Grand Jury (3) cited above:
"Of particular interest is the information the Jury received about
the Little Rascals pre-school case in North Carolina. Eighty-five
percent of the percent of the children received therapy with three
therapists in the town; all of these children eventually
reported satanic abuse. Fifteen percent of the children were
treated by different therapists in a neighboring city; none of
the children reported abuse of any kind after the same period of
time in therapy."
(emphasis added).
It would appear that in this case, the memories of Satanic abuse were
implanted by sincere therapists who believed in the reality of
Satanic abuse. The out-of-town therapists, who had no such belief,
found no such reports.
In other cases, children's memories can be shown to be probably
false by studying their content. For example:
- children said that they were taken during the daytime into a
back room of a grocery store and abused. The investigator found an
open archway between the store and the back room; any staff and
customers in the store would have seen the abuse in progress
- children reported being sodomized with a penis or knife, yet no
indication of rectal damage was found
- children reported being taken in space ships into outer space
and abused there
- children reported being taken on a boat and abused; some trained
sharks danced around the boat
- children reported a staff member dressing up as a clown and
robbing the town's jewelry store; no such crime ever happened
- a child reported being abused with a vibrator which had a yellow
body and blue ends. No such vibrator was ever found. But a search of
suspected perpetrators' home had turned up a vibrator which had been
shown on television. Due to the TV lighting, the uniformly flesh
coloured vibrator appeared to have a yellow body and blue ends.
- children reported being taken through long underground tunnels
(8) from the basement of the McMartin day care centre (9) to a
nearby building or underground room where they were abused. Police
conducted ground conductivity measurements and proved that the
tunnels never existed
Indications that Large Scale Abuse Does Not Occur
Widespread child abuse at a day care center, church Sunday School or
baby-sitting service does seem improbable. In order to maintain such
an abusive environment, the staff would have to somehow handle the
following problems:
- Taking the kids on long car and plane rides, as reported by many
children, in order to molest them in other cities would very
difficult. Parents often come to the facility at random times during
the day to pick up their children for doctor or dentist
appointments. They often phone the center to speak to their
children. If the children were in another state, they could not be
produced, and all hell would break loose at the center.
- Recruitment of additional child molesters to maintain staffing
levels would be very difficult. Most staff are women, and female
child molesters are extremely rare.
- Somehow, the most extreme physical and sexual abuse would have
to be conducted without leaving traces on the children's bodies that
would be noticeable by parents.
- The most extreme psychological abuse would have to be engaged in
frequently and over a long period of time without triggering parents' suspicion.
Conclusions
Many adults have been 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 many 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.
Many children end up with memories of horrible abuse that never
happened; they will be affected by these memories forever. Dozens of
innocent adults are having their lives ruined. At most, they can
hope to be found not-guilty. However, they will never be found
innocent in the eyes of the public.
There are probably over 100 persons who have been imprisoned in
North America for MVMO child sexual abuse crimes that they never
committed. In fact, many of the crimes might have never happened!
Some are having their convictions overturned and are being released
from prison. But others continue to be convicted and sent to prison.
REFERENCES CITED
- 1991-92 San Diego County Grand Jury, Report #8 "
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE, ASSAULT, AND MOLEST ISSUES" (San Diego County, CA). See:
http://www.vix.
com/pub/men/falsereport/satanic/sandiego.html
- Stephen J Ceci, "Cognitive and Social Factors in Children's Testimony,
Master Lecture, American Psychological Assoc., Toronto, 1993-AUG-20
- SJ Ceci & M. Bruck, Jeopardy in the Courtroom: A Scientific
Analysis of Children's Testimony, American Psychological Association (1995)
- Ibid., P. 170-171
- Ibid., P. 172-173
- Ibid., P. 178
- Alan Samson, "Five-year-olds and the
Truth", The Dominion, Wellington, New Zealand, 1996-MAY-28, P. 9.
- John Earl, "The Dark Truth About the 'Dark Tunnels of
McMartin'", Issues in Child Abuse Accusations, Vol. 7, #2, 1995
Spring, P. Institute for Psychological Therapies, 13200 Cannon City
Blvd., Northfield, MN 55057. An expose on the McMartin day care
centre underground tunnel myth. $15 USF; $20 USF (foreign).
- Paul & Shirley Eberle, "The Abuse of Innocence : The McMartin
Preschool Trial", Prometheus Books (1993). ISBN: 0879758090. The
authors attended the court sessions lasting over many years, and
concluded that there was no case against the accused.
- Hans Sebald, "Witch-Children, Prometheus Books, Amherst NY, (1995)
ISBN 0-87975-965-8. The book compares the role of childrens'
testimony during the Witchhunts of the Renaissance with their role
in child abuse cases today.
INTERNET REFERENCES
- See:
http://liquid2-sun.mit.edu/witchhunt.html for information on a series
of mass MVMO prosecutions which appear to have thrown innocent adults in
jail, left hundreds of children with false memories of child abuse, and
left many communities panic stricken. Information on the Witchhnt
mailing list is also available at that site.
- A list of WWW sites dealing with Satanic Ritual Abuse and Childhood
Sexual Abuse can be found at:
http://user.aol.com/doughskept/witchhunt_links.html
- Two useful articles which describe non-leading methods of
interviewing children are:
- Kathleen Faller, "Types of Questions for Children Alleged to
Have Been Sexually Abused", The Advisor, Newsletter of APSAC, (1990) 6(3)
- Dennis Reed, "Enhancing children's resistance to misleading questions
during forensic interviews", The Advisor, Newsletter of APSAC, (1993) 6(2)
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