Mass Hysteria

Mass hysteria swept our nation off of its feet in the 1980s and 1990s. Except this time, it was not about communism or witchcraft. It was something just as eerie--child molestation at day cares. Yet with all of this chaos going on in the United State, there were instances of false accusations which lead to innocent people being locked behind bars for years. Insufficient evidence, confirmation bias and false accusations all contributed to the injustice. Though some cases of molestation and abuse during times of mass hysteria may be true, false accusations tend to occur because of over exaggeration of the fad. One of the most famous cases of false accusation was the Amirault’s case, this involved Gerald, Cheryl and Violet Amirault. In this case these three individuals were accused of committing heinous crimes against children and animals. Soon after these accusations children were interrogated multiple times by the authorities, trained professionals and parents. In these interrogation sessions some of the children repeatedly told the adult that none of the Amiraults had touched them inappropriately. For example in the No

Justice Fried knew that the mass hysteria of child molestation had in fact affected the case. He also admitted that the children had been asked questions in a way that elicited a certain answer, one that confirmed the biases of all the prosecutors. To make matters worse Justice Fried also knew that the children 's testimonies were unlikely and knew how the defendant 's constitutional right of confronting their accusers had been violated. In the end Justice Fried’s position in the case was predetermined, it seems as if he did not even give the Amiraults a chance to prove their innocence. I think that Justice Fried was very biased and was not impartial at all and he did not adequately do what he was supposed to do in the situation presented to