San Diego County Grand Jury SRA debunking report

Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff

San Diego County Grand Jury SRA debunking report

Postby chiggerbit » Fri Sep 15, 2006 2:27 pm

Hmmm, very interesting grand jury report from 1994. See link for entire report.<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/cnty/cntydepts/safety/grand/reports/report7a.html">www.co.san-diego.ca.us/cn...ort7a.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>"..In December of 1993 the 1993/94 San Diego County Grand Jury received a number of requests to investigate the prosecution of the Dale Akiki case. One of these requests was from a member of the Board of Supervisors and subsequently caused the entire Board of Supervisors to unanimously vote to appropriate a supplemental budget for the Grand Jury to prepare a report on child molestation prosecutions within the criminal justice system. <br><br>After becoming organized and staffed in regard to this report in early February, the Grand Jury conducted a comprehensive investigation for a four-month period which included countless hours of testimony. The Jury researched a number of leads, reviewed all pertinent documents and attended many conferences on the subject. <br><br>The Grand Jury also did a considerable amount of investigation into other high profile multi-victim/multi-perpetrator child molestation cases throughout the country to find similarities regarding their successes and/or failures. <br><br>Early in its investigation the Jury learned that the number of cases reported of sexual abuse of children had increased dramatically since Federal legislation, known as the Mondale Act, which conditioned Federal funding on granting immunity for those reporting potential child abuse. The number of cases being reported has increased at a greater rate than the number of convictions for the activity. This is partially due to the inherent conflict presented by increased funding for increased activities and the ability for a malicious report to be filed without regard to personal liability................." <br><br>".......The Grand Jury was able to determine that therapy frequently is not used to its fullest treatment benefit, but is an adjunct to develop evidence for the prosecution of child molestation cases. The many issues involving conflict of interest, hidden agendas and misguided treatment by therapists are addressed in this report as well as the dispelling of the myth that satanic ritual abuse is prevalent in child molestation cases in San Diego County.........." <br><br>".......In the Akiki case it appears that the various available protocols <br><br>were not followed. For instance, the law enforcement agency initially involved (Sheriff's Department) was not allowed to continue an in-depth investigation to prepare the case for filing charges. Additional failure of the procedures occurred when interviewers of the children and other investigators (District Attorney's investigators) were removed or had their normal investigative duties curtailed by the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case. <br><br>THERAPISTS<br><br><br>CONTAMINATION<br><br><br>Contamination is the act of introducing outside influences into a person's subjective experience so that either his memory of an event or his description of the event is altered. <br><br>Kenneth V. Lanning is the Supervisory Special Agent assigned to the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI at their academy in Quantico, Virginia. In his list of possible sources of contamination he includes "overzealous intervenors." He points out how interested parties such as parents, other family members, doctors, therapists, social workers, law enforcement and prosecutors can create "intervenor contagion." <br><br>Lanning describes how contamination occurs: <br><br>"Victims have been subtly as well as overtly rewarded and bribed by usually well meaning intervenors for furnishing details. In addition, some of what appears to have happened may have originated as a result of intervenors making assumptions about or misinterpreting what the victims are saying. The intervenors then repeat, and possibly embellish, these assumptions and misinterpretations and eventually the victims are 'forced' to agree or come to accept this "official" version of what happened." <br><br>In the Akiki case it appears that contamination occurred at many levels. First, the parents had several meetings where the accusations against Dale Akiki were discussed. Although the parents were cautioned not to talk about these events with the children, the fact is that at least some of the parents did. One father even supplied an audiotape of his session with his child. <br><br>The therapists were also a source of contamination. Therapy is not only a possible source of contamination, it is by its very nature a form of contamination. Therapy is an active effort to provide the client a new framework to understand the events in their lives. Therapeutic change on the part of the client is based on suggestibility. In order for a person to benefit from therapy, some degree of suggestibility must exist within the client. Unless people were suggestible, therapy would not work. Contamination in therapy can occur through overt and covert methods. <br><br>Therapists can also contaminate each other, and this is then passed on to the client. When one therapist deals with more than one client connected with a particular case, it is possible that information "extracted" from one client interview can consciously or subconsciously be transferred to a second client. In addition, when several therapists dealing with different clients in the same case get together, the possibility of the transfer of misinformation or misinterpretations exists. The possibility becomes even greater when all the therapists have a common bias, such as accepting ritual abuse allegations as established fact. <br><br>The best example of contamination in the Akiki case was the fact that the therapists were not only trying to treat the children but they were also attempting to be criminal investigators. The prosecutor asked the therapists to provide more disclosures of abuse. One therapist reported that she encouraged parents to use the "empty chair" technique with their child at home so that the child could accuse Dale Akiki, and act out her anger toward him in effigy. The parents were urging the children to provide more and more allegations that could be used for trial. The pressures on the children were enormous. <br><br>SUGGESTIBILITY <br><br>According to Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington and author of several books and articles on memory, "There is enormous variability in the age of earliest memory from two years to eight years and occasionally later." Young people go through a period of development when their vocabulary has not been fully formed and where they do not really understand how the world works, so they make up explanations for what they observe, which may not be very logical. <br><br>Psychological studies do not show a simple relation between age and suggestibility. A person's perception, memory and verbal report of an event can be influenced by numerous factors unrelated to the truth of the incident. Pre-event and post-event information, interviewer bias, repeated yes-no questioning and the wording of a question can influence the recall and reporting of an event. Research shows that young children are generally more suggestible <br><br>than older children, and that children can be made to distort information based on what they believe the interviewer wants to hear, and this can occur consciously or unconsciously. <br><br>The dilemma faced by the prosecution is how to extract believable testimony from very young children. To aid them in this effort the prosecution often turns to therapists....." <br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=chiggerbit@rigorousintuition>chiggerbit</A> at: 9/15/06 12:51 pm<br></i>
chiggerbit
 
Posts: 8594
Joined: Tue May 10, 2005 12:23 pm
Blog: View Blog (0)

Re: San Diego County Grand Jury SRA debunking report

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Fri Sep 15, 2006 4:05 pm

"Elizabeth Loftus" - name trip alarm always. FMSF.<br><br>This puffy discrediting propaganda against therapists tries to portray mere human involvement as precluding any conclusions and leaves out that there is a growing database on memory and trauma and abuse which does allow drawing prudent conclusions about protecting children. <p></p><i></i>
User avatar
Hugh Manatee Wins
 
Posts: 9869
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2005 6:51 pm
Location: in context
Blog: View Blog (0)


Return to SRA and Occult Crime

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests