https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_allegation_of_child_sexual_abuse
Denial of child sexual abuse by the accused, or by others, is common and its reality is not easily accepted (though such a denial should never be interpreted as evidence of guilt).[19][20] Reporting rates may also be substantially below actual rates of abuse as many victims do not disclose their abuse,[21][22] which may result in an overrepresentation of false allegations due to the inaccurate estimation of actual cases of abuse.[23] Of the millions of reports of child sexual abuse each year to state protective agencies in the US (including both substantiated and unsubstantiated reports), there is no formal determination as to what portion of those represent false allegations.
Findings of multiple studies performed between 1987 and 1995 suggested that the rate of false allegations ranged from a low of 6% to a high of 35% of reported child sexual abuse cases.[8] Experts have argued that the reason for the wide range of differences in the rates resulted from different criteria used in various studies. In particular, a lower rate was found in studies that considered false allegations to be based on intentional lying, whereas the higher rates were reported in studies that also added unintentional false allegations resulting from suggestive questioning.[8] A 1992 meta-analysis suggests that false allegations represent between two and ten percent of all allegations.[6]
False reports are more common in custody disputes.[24][25][26] Children appear to rarely make up false allegations of their own accord[25][26][27] but will make false allegations if coercively questioned by individuals who believe abuse has occurred but refuse to accept children's statements that they were not abused (as was common practice during the satanic ritual abuse moral panic).[7] False allegations can also arise as a consequence of false memories, sometimes implanted by questionable therapeutic practices.[28]
Thing is, the first summer I worked as a counsellor at a Jewish summer camp, one of my friends was fired a week in after being accused by a camper of hitting him. He was dismissed that evening and taken to the local town to catch a bus back home. Good bye.
ReplyDeleteNext day the boy and his sister were walking around the camp telling anyone who wanted to listen that they had made the whole thing up because they didn't like him and wanted to get rid of him. And when someone approached the director, she waved them off and said "We believe the allegations!"