Ross Cheit, a professor of political science at Brown University (and a friend of Apt. 11D), has a hot new book, The Witch-Hunt Narrative, that looks at an old case, The McMartin preschool abuse scandal in 1984. Emily Bazelton discusses the book and the history of the case in the New York Times today.

While this case is ancient history, the topic is very current. Just a few months ago, Dylan Farrow and Woody Allen fought over the same issue in the opinion pages of the New York Times. Can we believe a child?

Children have active imaginations. The lines between reality and imagination are fluid and changing and easily manipulated by adults. When the stakes are small, it’s probably best to believe a child. Child abuse, however, is a high stakes accusation. An adult who is accused of child abuse is utterly devastated. There’s jail time and a destroyed reputation. Can we believe a child, when the result means the total devastation of an adult’s life?

On the other hand, child abuse happens all the time. And the victims are also utterly destroyed. I’ve seen recovered memory happen in a friend. It’s a real thing. We cannot discount the child’s point of view entirely and allow horrible predators to continue their crimes.

Cheit believes that abuse did happen in McMartin childcare center. His book reviews the old material and makes a compelling case for the victims.

While the methods for investigating these cases have improved since the 1980s, the process of getting the truth from a child remains more of an art than a science. As a parent of a child with special needs who goes into men’s restrooms alone, this ambiguity makes me incredibly nervous. As someone who likes to think up solutions to problems, I suppose the best route is to try to establish rules that make abuse impossible (or at least extremely difficult), so we don’t have to rely upon a child’s testimony at all.