by Andrew Vachss

About the author: Andrew Vachss has been an attorney and consultant in New York City since 1976. His individual practice is limited to the following matters concerning children and youth: abuse/neglect, delinquency, custody/visitation, and related tort litigation. His former specializations include juvenile defense, parole, and pre-sentence.

Some people will tell you that there was no such thing as child sexual abuse a few short decades ago—the “good old days.” And if you go to the files and read the old newspapers, you might well believe them.

Unless you were a victim, now grown to adulthood.

Then the media “discovered” child abuse. Like a pendulum, press coverage swung from one extreme to the other. From being reported so rarely that many doubted its very existence, child abuse...