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This is tremendously disturbing, but according to the article pretty common. It's a tough line. On the one hand, nobody wants children to suffer. If at all pos

This is tremendously disturbing, but according to the article pretty common. It's a tough line. On the one hand, nobody wants children to suffer. If at all possible, every child should be protected from abuse. I think the key, as the author elaborates on, is education. Knowing the difference between a crazy hippy family and pedophiles seems like common sense -- but if you, as an uneducated clerk at a crappy CVS in the middle of nowhere, saw something that offended your sensibilities and seemed perverse... Without education things like this will happen again and again. Once something like this gets into the bureaucratic pipeline it becomes an unfortunate problem of due diligence.

barrkel 16y ago
It's really common wrong-headed idea, and I suspect at its heart it's a fundamental flaw of democracy. The idea is that if A does bad thing B, all you have to do is pass a law against doing B, and A will stop doing B. But that's not how it works in practice. Instead, you introduce this third character C, who goes out looking for As who might be doing Bs, and potentially does a lot of damage in that search. That damage isn't taken into consideration by the people who simply want As to stop doing B. But people, as a collective electorate, are like a simple-minded 6-year-old, who are promised something by their parents, and they clap their hands in glee, unable to imagine the downsides.
sgt 16y ago
In practice it just doesn't work very well sometimes. I think it's better to risk letting more child abusers off the hook, than potentially ruining the lives of decent parents like these.
- ErrantX 16y ago
  This was a particularly clear cut case where the parents had done absolutely nothing wrong. That is unusual (at least in my experience) and, yes, we need to avoid these cases. But how do you treat the 8 year old who makes accusations about her father; how much do you have to believe before investigating him? How certain do you have to be that she may be lying before dropping the case? This is the main area of unjust investigations remaining (at least in the UK) and it is troublesome how to find the safe medium.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  If it's hurt adults or let children be hurt, I don't know if I can agree with you. Children are much more powerless than most adults, and the strong should always stick up for the weak.
  - hga 16y ago
    You're ignoring how this directly hurts the children, and indirectly by messing up their parents and the latter's relationship with their children. It really comes down to a simple question: who owns your children, you or the state? As of late, it's the latter.

barrkel 16y ago

It's really common wrong-headed idea, and I suspect at its heart it's a fundamental flaw of democracy. The idea is that if A does bad thing B, all you have to do is pass a law against doing B, and A will stop doing B. But that's not how it works in practice. Instead, you introduce this third character C, who goes out looking for As who might be doing Bs, and potentially does a lot of damage in that search. That damage isn't taken into consideration by the people who simply want As to stop doing B. But people, as a collective electorate, are like a simple-minded 6-year-old, who are promised something by their parents, and they clap their hands in glee, unable to imagine the downsides.

sgt 16y ago

In practice it just doesn't work very well sometimes. I think it's better to risk letting more child abusers off the hook, than potentially ruining the lives of decent parents like these.

ErrantX 16y ago
This was a particularly clear cut case where the parents had done absolutely nothing wrong. That is unusual (at least in my experience) and, yes, we need to avoid these cases. But how do you treat the 8 year old who makes accusations about her father; how much do you have to believe before investigating him? How certain do you have to be that she may be lying before dropping the case? This is the main area of unjust investigations remaining (at least in the UK) and it is troublesome how to find the safe medium.
sliverstorm 16y ago
If it's hurt adults or let children be hurt, I don't know if I can agree with you. Children are much more powerless than most adults, and the strong should always stick up for the weak.
- hga 16y ago
  You're ignoring how this directly hurts the children, and indirectly by messing up their parents and the latter's relationship with their children. It really comes down to a simple question: who owns your children, you or the state? As of late, it's the latter.