Times in past American history have clearly demonstrated how cruel and merciless people can be when they arbitrarily decided a particular group of people were a "threat to society." In Salem, Massachusetts, from 1692 to 1693, so-called "witches" were the target of choice. All that was necessary for a person to be locked up in jail was an accusation from a family member, friend or a total stranger, no investigation required. Trials for these poor folks was a sham, since ignorant judges allowed "spectral evidence" to be used to determine that person’s guilt. More often than not, anyone accused of being a "witch" was executed, for no other reason than the fact that an accusation was made. And that was just the beginning.

In 1800, during the Presidential election of Adams versus Jefferson, the Sedition Act determined that any person who criticized the Federalist government, either by word or in print, was guilty of "treason," and was immediately arrested and incarcerated. Fortunately, victims of the Sedition Act, many of whom were editors or writers, were released soon after Thomas Jefferson was elected President. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, thousands of Japanese-Americans were rounded up and locked up in "internment camps," simply because of their Japanese heritage. After that, we had the "Red Scare" in the 1950's, which destroyed the lives of many people, many who were noted artists, writers and film makers. No facts were required nor was evidence obtained to prove anyone accused was a "threat."

Over the past decade, it has become apparent that anyone accused of a sex-related crime, particularly a crime against a child or adolescent, is automatically a "child molester" or "sex offender," with little, if any, real investigation done to prove whether or not a crime has actually been committed. The campaign to lock up sex offenders has developed into the new American witch hunt.

"The number one myth held by various police, social workers and other child advocates is that children do not lie about their experiences of sexual abuse," states Allen Cowling, a Mississippi-based private investigator who has made defending false allegations of sexual abuse a specialty and has created a website designed to address these critical issues. "Therefore, when they express such allegations, their willingness to disclose them verifies the veracity of their statements."

Criminal defense attorneys have seen a rise in false allegations of sexual abuse as well. "It would appear that the Arizona legislature has no grasp of the viciousness of such a false accusation or the magnitude of the resulting destruction to an innocent person maliciously and falsely accused," says Joel Erik Thompson, who practises criminal law in Phoenix, Arizona. In an article for the IPT Journal, titled Defense of Child Molestation Charges, written in 1992, he notes that "a 1989 statute, A.R.S. SS 13-3620.01, makes it a class 3