Andrew Vachss

About the author: Andrew Vachss is a children's attorney in New York City.

The revelation over recent decades that child sexual abuse is a widespread phenomenon has prompted a backlash led by people who maintain that they have been wrongly accused of this heinous crime. Despite the possibility of false accusations and inconvenience to families, however, a thorough investigation should be conducted whenever an allegation of child molestation is made. Further, more resources should be devoted to protecting children from sexual abuse.

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...