Fairness in Dealing with the Accused

FAIRNESS IN DEALING WITH THE ACCUSED

Christopher Ebbe, Ph.D.    7-12

ABSTRACT:  The “rush to judgment” tendency with regard to some crimes is explored, and fairness for all accused is requested.

KEY WORDS:  fairness, rush to judgment, sex crimes

Recently there have been a number of accusations against teachers and other school personnel in Los Angeles of sexual improprieties of various sorts with students.  Naturally this is troubling to parents, but these cases have produced demonstrations by some parents saying that they should have been informed earlier about the accusations, particularly when there were previous suspicions about these same personnel that were not substantiated.  No reason is given regarding why parents should have been informed, but one might surmise that parents would rush to remove their children from classes with those teachers, whether or not the teacher was guilty.  The L.A. Unified School District was so concerned about these demonstrations that they even removed the entire staff of one school and transferred all of the staff to other schools.  In another town, a principal was fired for investigating verbal sexual behavior on the part of a seven-year old, determining that it did not rise to the level required for reporting to authorities and deciding not to report the behavior to Child Protective Services.  (This incident aroused considerable support from parents for the principal, who was eventually rehired, as a teacher.)  The Penn State University sex scandal provides another example, in which university leaders decided not to act on certain information about possible abuse of children by an assistant coach (quite apart from the college team and his job with the college team but using school facilities), and when it became a public cause célèbre, the NCAA gave severe sanctions to the university football program, even though technically speaking, there was no breaking of NCAA rules by the team or active coaches.

People in our culture are so upset by sexual behavior by children and by inappropriate sexual behavior with children by those who work with children that any case can readily become a crusade against the terrible scourge of child sexual abuse.  Reactions by authorities have edged closer and closer to firing personnel without complete or rational investigation of the situation, as public furor makes it sound as if the whole school system is somehow blameworthy, which is certainly untrue.

In all kinds of legal cases (not just cases involving sex) media coverage of sensational trials across the country results in demonstrations and accusations by those who have decided on guilt or innocence, far ahead of the jury and the court.  These people know nothing about the actual facts of the case but have decided, even so, whether the accused is guilty. 

These decisions would seem to represent whether those individuals want the accused to be guilty or innocent, and these wishes then serve the desires of the individual for “how things should be,” rather than how things actually are.  This is an example of how human beings make up what they claim to be real in order to feel better themselves.  Another human characteristic that these premature claims illustrate is how hard it is for us to tolerate the unknown (“tolerate ambiguity”).  Again, many of us prefer to make up what we claim to be true, rather than continue “not to know.”  Yet another reason for people to presume the accused to be guilty is to punish or get revenge (even before any court action), as if this will “even up the score” and put things back in equilibrium.  Some of these premature deciders feel so strongly about child sexual abuse that they would like to make an example of anyone even accused of it, even if he or she is not guilty.

I would urge you to reflect on your own behavior in this regard, every time an accusation is announced.  Do you take a position on guilt or innocence, even when you don’t know much about the case?  (What you learn on TV about a case almost never gives enough detail about the facts to make any sort of decision or prediction.  The internet is the same; people gossiping on the internet know no more than TV viewers.)  Are you able to just put it all on hold until proper investigation is done and a court processes this information?  I would urge you to attempt to tolerate the ambiguity and your wish for things to be a certain way without making up falsehoods in order that you can feel better.  (I know how long that process usually takes, as it often seems pointlessly endless!)  Not only might this lead to better dealings with reality in general (better decisions, more appropriate behavior, etc.), but if more people could delay their decisions and not make assumptions, it would moderate the significant danger that all of us face of having accusations of sexual impropriety made against us! 

Yes, it’s true.  Not only could children you interact with (neighbors, kids at a park, students, kids in a team) make up a lie about you, to get back at you for something or just as a lark, but any adult with negative feelings toward you could make up a lie accusing you of sexual improprieties with children.  Even if you live alone and have no contact with children, just because you walk around the block every night for exercise creates an opportunity for someone to “see” an inappropriate act on your part.  You would be completely unable to prove otherwise, and even if no child would acknowledge that you had done the act, this lie would greatly affect your reputation in the community and give you considerable grief with respect to law enforcement.  You know that many people, even some of your friends, would jump to conclusions about you (“You never can tell about people, can you?”).  The tendency of people to believe the worst and to gossip about it when accusations are made leads to even more false accusations being made.  You might think that such a thing could or would never happen to you, but I assure you that many, many people have thought that and found themselves falsely accused anyway.

Similarly, it is safer for all of us if employers can take appropriate action when such accusations are made.  Knowing that a significant percentage of these are false accusations, employers should take only actions necessary to protect children from future possible future harm, and this rarely requires that the employee be fired.  Even if the employee’s job is working with children, it is inappropriate to fire the employee before the courts find the employee guilty.  You would not want to be fired if you were falsely accused, so others deserve the same tentative presumption of possible innocence.  Public relations problems do not justify firing an employee who is innocent.

Our legal traditions include the presumption that we are innocent until proven guilty, and this dictum was and is needed for exactly these kinds of situations, when sizeable numbers of people want the person to be guilty and don’t really care if he or she is guilty or not.  (The opposite situation is covered by the dictum that “no one is above the law,” when sizeable numbers of people want someone to be innocent.)  There is no doubt that it is frustrating that justice often takes so long, but remember that you could easily be the accused, regardless of whether you have done anything wrong, and you would wish others to be fair and withhold judgment until the proper legal proceedings had done what they could to determine your guilt or innocence.

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