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	Justice Suffers When Stereotypes Used to Reach Verdict Patriot Ledger May 23, 2010 http://www.patriotledger.com/opinions/opinions_columnists/x258108458/WENDY-J-MURPHY-Justice-suffers-when-stereotypes-used-to-reach-verdict A female ex-kindergarten teacher from Tennessee named Tonya Craft was recently on trial for molesting three little girls, including her own daughter. The victims, now between ages 7 and 9, were between 5 and 7 when they separately reported in vivid detail that Craft committed several sex crimes against them. The defense claimed the girls were lying, even though two of them had genital injuries that couldn't otherwise be explained. It's certainly possible for kids to lie, even about abuse, but three little girls, who had no way of knowing about adult sexual behavior, duping experienced prosecutors into bringing completely false charges?! All the research says this is impossible. When kids do lie, they're not good at it. They just don't have enough life experience to add the kind of contextual details necessary to make a lie about sexual abuse seem credible to professionals who handle such cases all the time. Nonetheless, when charges were filed against Craft, the public sentiment was a strange mix of shock and incredulity that a woman could be guilty of sex crimes against girls. I had a chance to talk about the impact of this cultural bias, from the prosecution's perspective, on NBC's "Today Show." I explained that myths about the "types" of people who molest little girls were the best evidence for the defense because jurors can't conceive of that "type" being a seemingly heterosexual kindergarten teacher, married mother of two children. If she's the "type" who presents a danger to little girls, how can parents possibly determine who the "safe" people are? This "feel good" bias makes justice for children very difficult to achieve in cases that fall outside the "norm" of what we think child sex crimes look like. We can accept that a creepy guy in smelly clothes might be guilty – and that a nutty female teacher could get the hots for a teenage boy – but a mommy who teaches kindergarten touching 5-year-old girls? No way. Who the defendant "seemed" to be was the elephant in the room that the prosecutor had to address head on if he hoped to convince the jury that the children were credible. Thus, the prosecutor offered as evidence things about Craft's life that contradicted her image, including that she recently had a lesbian relationship. I told Matt Lauer this information might open the jurors' minds to the possibility that if the accused liked females, then maybe she would also be interested in little girls. Two gay people e-mailed me after the show to say that I'd made an unfair connection between being gay and being a molester. I can see their point. Here's the truth. Most child molesters are heterosexual. Heterosexual people who molest children will often choose either gender to be their victim, but homosexual child molesters are more likely to choose a same-sex victim. None of this correlates being gay with being dangerous to kids, and there's been too much bigotry about this issue directed at the gay community primarily because of the Catholic Church crisis, in which priests disproportionately targeted male victims. It's too bad the media didn't do a better job showcasing the huge percentage of female victims abused by priests. That might have prevented unfair social myths from developing such strong roots. Because the jurors in Craft's case would be reluctant to accept the idea that a heterosexual woman might molest female children, the court allowed the jury to hear about Craft's lesbian interests. That may have been designed in good faith to offset the idea that the accused was only interested in males, but the court's decision was wrongheaded. When jurors use stereotypes to reach a verdict, the system itself suffers from injustice and judges have a duty to do something corrective. But using one prejudice to fix another isn't helpful. The court should have insisted that jurors be screened beforehand to weed out those who lacked the ability to believe the allegations could be true. (Studies show that at least 10 percent of molesters are females who hurt girls.) The judge also should have instructed the jury, before deliberations, that people are "no more and no less" likely to molest children because of their sexual orientation. Since the jury was neither screened nor well-instructed, it was no surprise when Craft was acquitted on all counts. But given the powerful prosecution evidence, it's clear jurors voted to acquit not because the case wasn't strong, but because they lacked sufficient knowledge and human capacity to accept the ugly reality of female-to-female sexual abuse of children. Contact: wmurphy@nesl.edu
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