Cathy Young Debunks an Attempt to Defend the Sex-Abuse Hysteria of the '80s
In The Witch-Hunt Narrative, Ross Cheit tries to rehabilitate the day care sex-abuse fears of the 1980s. While he admits that there was some "overreaction" and injustice to innocent people, he insists that the number of cases involving outlandish claims of large-scale molestation is too small to sustain the notion of a national witch hunt. What's more, he adds, many of the defendants were almost certainly guilty. Cathy Young examines Cheit's claims and comes away unconvinced.