[Base]
[Index]
False Accusations
As in any hystery, the child sex hystery leads to a lot of false
accusations. There are several reasons:
- False memories;
- Child abuse accusations may help to win custody;
- Almost every child shows sometimes one or some of the many
problems which are claimed to be a consequence of sexual abuse;
False Memory Syndrom
There is a lot of doubt if memories about early sexual abuse,
recovered by "memory enhancement techniques" such as hypnosis, sodium
amytal, dream interpretation, guided imagery, body massages,
participation in survivor groups and reading of self-help books
are correct. There may be also false memories.
See the
bibliography or the FAQ file of the False Memory
Syndrome Foundation for more information.
See also some cases and an article
from Goodyear-Smith 1995.
Other results
The false memory controversy is not a main purpose of our research.
Nonetheless, some studies which have been found "by the way":
- Pope & Hudson 1995 have
found that "present clinical evidence is insufficient to permit the
conclusion that individuals can repress memories of childhood sexual
abuse. This finding is surprising, since many writers have implied
that hundreds of thousands, or even millions of persons harbour such
repressed memories."
- Williams 1994 finds that
38% of abuse victims have forgotten their experiences.
- Poole et al. 1995