Friends of Justice

An editorial by NCRJ Advisor Dr. Susan Robbins. Dr, Robbins reviews the history of the DSM as psychiatry evolved from being psychoanalytically based towards a biomedical model. Robbins says “Each DSM revision attempted to add a patina of scientific discovery, despite the failure to empirically denonstrate major advances in either reliability or validity.” She also points out that “The very fact that diagnoses can be voted in or out, based on little more than the opinions of the persons charged with revising or creating those diagnoses, or as a result of political activism, speaks directly to the ideological and constructivist nature of the diagnostic enterprise.” She expresses concern about social work programs that require a DSM course with a lack of critical thinking about the DSM. Social workers must do more than simply assign a DSM diagnoses. She also aruges that “the continued lack of reliability and validity in DSM diagnoses combined with a narrow biologic etiology also raises etical and practical issues related to its use in research.”

Read the full editorial, posted here with Dr. Robbins’ permission.

Lawyers representing divorced people in custody battles know well that the first charge of child abuse gives the accuser momentum. False charges have become common in this context, even acceptable. A Seattle judge recently acknowledged that charges of molestation against one spouse by the other were false, but explained that they were understandable because the accuser was fighting for custody of the child. The accuser won. Compared to the venomous intensity of custody battles, criminal trials are pastorals.

There have been so many wrongful convictions for child sex abuse over the past 30 years that researchers are able to identify patterns of how false charges are created. The chief method is coercive and suggestive interviews by determined adults who already know what they want to hear. A young child learns by following the direction of grownups. It’s hard to imagine a technique more leading than for the child’s mother to follow her around for days with a camera, selectively recording answers to some, but not all, probes and questions and comments about sex abuse. Only a remarkably insensitive child would be indifferent to her caregiver’s strongest desires; there is no evidence that Dylan Farrow is insensitive. The use of that technique by Mia Farrow doesn’t mean that Dylan was not abused. It just means that Mia Farrow got the answers she wanted, whether or not Dylan was abused. That makes her tape unreliable.

When four-and five-years-olds have testified to impossibilities—being flown to Mexico to be abused and returned back in time to be picked up from daycare, watching their teachers eviscerate animals in the classroom—they cling to those events as if they were real. Ten-year-olds who testify falsely get caught up in the whirl of being a hero/victim, but they know when they go to sleep at night that it really wasn’t like that, and often they eventually recant. Seven-year-olds are somewhere in between. Dylan’s alleged abuse was a chief theme of the house in which she was raised; any counter-story would have been a betrayal of her mother. What should we make of the fact that Dylan still believes that it happened? Not much.

Woody Allen has a long history of keen interest in and involvements with post-pubescent women. Pedophiles don’t. The likelihood of him committing some unspecified form of sexual assault on a young child, especially while engaged in a custody battle, is minuscule. There is nothing that supports the truth of the charges against Woody Allen—not the timing and circumstances of how they came to light, not their investigation, and not the nature of the accused.

Michael R. Snedeker, Esq.

President, National Center for Reason and Justice

Every year I send out this list of prisoners, hoping that they will receive some holiday cards. Most of the people on this list are innocent; some are not. But all are deserving of kindness.

This year I was very pleased to remove six people no longer in prison — the San Antonio Four and Dan and Fran Keller.

But it made me very sad to have to add the name of Joseph Allen, who has spent the last four Christmases in freedom. I especially hope that joseph gets some nice cards this year.

In any case, here is the list. Please let me know if there are corrections I should make.

https://bobchatelle.net/please-write-to-a-prisoner

Here is the post from the NCRJ web site:

http://ncrj.org/the-san-antonio-four-major-ncrj-victory-imminent/

This is a major development. Please share the NCRJ’s post far and wide: Facebook, Twitter, your blogs, other social media, etc.

Here’s wishing the best for these four fine young women.

-Bob

Please follow us.

Follow @NCRJ1

Dedicated defense attorney Ron Kuby has handled other cases sponsored by the NCRJ, including that of wrongfully convicted Jesse Friedman.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/nyregion/judge-grants-new-trial-to-man-convicted-of-child-sexual-abuse.html?smid=fb-share&_r=1&

Harvey Silverglate is on the Advisory Board of the National Center for Reason and Justice.

“The ill-considered prosecution leading to the suicide of computer prodigy Aaron Swartz is the most recent in a long line of abusive prosecutions coming out of the U.S. attorney’s office in Boston, representing a disastrous culture shift. It sadly reflects what’s happened to the federal criminal courts, not only in Massachusetts but across the country.”

http://dankennedy.net/2013/01/24/the-swartz-suicide-and-the-sick-culture-of-the-justice-dept/

…to get a tax-deduction for your year-end gift to the National Center for Reason and Justice.

Again, here is the appeal letter: http://ncrj.org/our-year-end-letter/

Click here to donate.

-Bob

Dear Friend of Justice,

This is the most difficult time of the year for those — innocent or guilty — who are behind bars.

Prisoners always love to receive mail. Some — too many — are forgotten and receive little or none. They are especially appreciative at this time of year.

Here is a list of a few addresses: https://bobchatelle.net/please-write-to-a-prisoner

I hope you will find it in your heart to include a few on your holiday list.

-Bob Chatelle