Includes bibliographical references and index.

Child sexual abuse became part of the public discourse in 1984 with a series of high-profile criminal cases involving day-care centres, many of which were eventually seen as 'witch-hunts'. Under this view, the charges were the result of suggestive interviewing, over-zealous prosecutors, and a gullible press. This is the first scholarly book to challenge that view. Based on fifteen years of original trial court research, it argues that the evidence for the witch-hunt narrative is weak at best, in many cases ignoring significant evidence of abuse and in others ignoring complexity.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on March 14, 2014).