Dorothy Rabinowitz

If you think witch hunts died out with Salem, you need only read this book to realize they continue on. We no longer call them witches or burn people at the stake. However, the singleminded pursuit by so-called experts easily creates the same type of mass hysteria found in witch hunts.

In the mid '80s, I was a new mother living in my home state of Massachusetts when the nursery school sexual abuse epidemics began. One of the worst cases took place at Fells Acres Day School in Malden, Massachusetts. Being local, we were besieged with news of this scandal. I remember thinking how absurd the whole thing sounded. Now, reading the details we weren't given back then, I find it not only absurd but horrifying. This was a modern day witch hunt at its best.

This book takes on that case and several more. In no way does the author trivialize child abuse or make claims that child sex abuse never happens. But these sensationalized cases not only trivialized the truth, they destroyed the lives of innocent adults and the children these experts were supposed to protect.… (meer)