In November 2000, a San Jose man was riding in a female coworker’s car when he thought he heard a child moaning. According to Sergeant Steve Dixon of the San Jose Police Department, the man “looked in the back seat. There was no one there. He looked at her [his coworker]. She looked very nervous. She began talking very loudly. He heard the moaning several times. She turned up the radio, apparently to drown out the sounds.” The man later called the police, and the woman was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment after her two sons, ages five and seven, told authorities that their mother would sometimes lock them in the trunk of her Honda Civic when she went to work. In describing this incident, Dixon stated, “It’s almost unbelievable.”

Indeed, what is perhaps most shocking about this story is...