Nonetheless, one of our legal system’s most basic principles is that the accused are “innocent until proven guilty”–and rightly so. It takes only a word to accuse someone, yet the consequences of a presumption of guilt can be devastating, especially when the crime is such a heinous and loathsome one as child molestation.

“When will those to whom we have given our trust stop accusing the victim of fabricating their stories of abuse?” Unfortunately, never. Almost all criminals turn on their accusers, and call them liars. This quintessential criminal behavior is as old as mankind and will never go away. It was already well known when our justice system was established.

Any sane person will want to protect children from abuse, and will want those who perpetrate it to be held accountable, and appropriately punished. But in our zeal for justice, we should not disregard the principles of justice itself. And one of those principles is that accusation does not automatically equal guilt, because people do sometimes make false accusations, either intentionally or unintentionally, for all sorts of reasons.

Ed