Quote From: deantongAs someone who has a little knowledge and experience concerning this subject matter (www.abuse-excuse.com/ae_vita.html), and who has appeared on Dr. Phil's show, let me say that we don't decide if these allegations are true or false by reading tarot cards or tea leaves. In fact, polygraphs, while they can be persuasive to police officers in cases of criminal interference, for the most part are legally inadmissible in court. Their results vary widely dependent upon the polygraph examiner (should be DODPI certified) and the type of test (lafayette v. axciton).
Children as young as 3 & 1/2 can give salient details of molestation. Children this young do have the cognitive capacity to distinguish truth from lie. In addition, children this young can be very suggestible and impressionable, and they can be easily conditioned, indoctrinated, brainwashed, poisoned and coached to say things that please their interviewer.
Especially, if the interview is suggestive and leading and is not conducted in a structured manner. A parent who is alienating a child from another parent, wielding that child as ammunition (e.g. in a contentious custody battle), or a professional who is not privy to sound forensic child interview techniques, could use scripting, guided imagery, stereotype induction, closed-ended questions, anatomical dolls, puppets drawings, toys, cake, or candy or other means of positive reniforcement to unilaterally cajole a child into saying things that are not true.
Dr. Stephen Ceci's book - Jeopardy in the Courtroom - is the seminal book in this area of child suggestibility- as he conducted scores of scientific studies to prove that young kids can be easily manipulated. The first and foremost indicator that points to a reliable and valid child outcry or disclosure of sexual abuse is a contemporaneous or spontaneous report from the alleged child victim. Any possible contaminant such as divorce, custody battle, parental discord, therapy, et al, can influence the reliability, credibility, and validity of the child's fresh complaint.
Please do not get me wrong, If this father is abusing his daughter, he should go to jail for the rest of his life. But, If it is proven that this mother or anyone else is coaching this little girl, she needs to go to jail to. My brother has three kids and is a pretty high ranking soldier in the Army. During a custody battle which got real ugly his daughter accused him of sexual abuse. After the civilian courts found that she had been coached by her mother. (she finally confessed as much) Then the Army began it's own investigation. That was almost eight years ago. This investigation also cleared my brother of any wrong doing. But that information is still in his personell jacket with the Army and still comes to light everytime he is up for a promotion or an award of any kind. My neice has also suffered because of this. She was only a small girl but she carries alot of guilt for this and their relationship has never been the same. She is now 18 but the scars seem brand new. A child as young as 3 will eventually believe that this has happened to them IF they are being coached, and suffer the same problems for the rest of their lives that they would have had if it had actually happened. That is why I think if the child has been coached in any way, the person doing the coaching should also face criminal charges for abuse. The results are the same. For everyones sake especially this little girl, I hope the truth comes out and this girl gets the help she needs.
