Ross E. Cheit

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ross E. Cheit
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipAmerican
Years activeProfessor
Academic background
Alma materWilliams College, UC Berkeley School of Law, Goldman School of Public Policy
Academic work
DisciplinePublic Policy
Sub-disciplineRepressed memory, childhood sexual abuse
WebsiteOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata

Ross E. Cheit is a Professor of Political Science and Professor of International and Public Affairs at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.[1]

The Witch Hunt Narrative

Himself a victim of child sexual abuse, Cheit is interested in the issue of repressed memory vis-a-vis childhood sexual abuse in cases like McMartin and the Catholic Church sexual abuse cases and put out his theories in the book The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children.[2]

Cheit argues that some of those accused in alleged day-care sex-abuse hysteria cases, including the Country Walk case, the McMartin preschool trial,[3][dubiousdiscuss][4] and the Oak Hill satanic ritual abuse trial, were actually guilty.[5][6][7] (The district attorney declared the Oak Hill defendants "actually innocent",[8] so they were compensated for their imprisonment.[9]) James M. Wood, Debbie Nathan, Richard Beck, and Keith Hampton criticize that Cheit's work "has omitted or mischaracterized important facts or ignored relevant scientific information" and "is often factually inaccurate and tends to make strong assertions without integrating relevant scholarly and scientific information."[10] KC Johnson writes "Even as [Cheit's] book gives every benefit of the doubt to the investigators and prosecutors ... much of Cheit’s evidence nonetheless portrays the prosecutions as massive miscarriages of justice."[11]

Biography

Cheit graduated from Williams College (1977, political economy and a coordinate major in environmental studies) before earning a Juris Doctor degree and PhD in public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. Before working for Duane, Lyman, and Seltzer, Cheit clerked for Justice Hans Linde of the Oregon Supreme Court. He joined the faculty at Brown in 1987.[1]

For fifteen years, Cheit was a member of the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, including eight years as chairman.[1][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Ross Cheit". Brown Public Policy Program. Brown University. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  2. ^ Bazelon, Emily (June 9, 2014). "Abuse Cases, and a Legacy of Skepticism". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  3. – via oxford.universitypressscholarship.com.
  4. from the original on 2015-10-17.
  5. .
  6. .
  7. ^ "Debunking Frontline's Did Daddy Do It?". April 24, 2002. Archived from the original on 2003-08-18.
  8. Austin Chronicle
    .
  9. ^ Chuck Lindell. "Dan, Fran Keller to get $3.4 million in 'satanic day care' case - News - Austin American-Statesman - Austin, TX". Statesman.com. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  10. S2CID 52091302
    .
  11. from the original on 2020-08-14.
  12. ^ Fitzpatrick, Edward (December 18, 2019). "R.I.'s top ethics watchdog is stepping down after 15 years. Here's what he learned". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 6 December 2020.