tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3726083.post2550209077493641615..comments2023-10-10T09:46:13.964-04:00Comments on Tillers on Evidence and Inference: Back to Basics: Wrongdoers, Victims, and Procedural Rules -- and Alleged Wrongdoers and Alleged VictimsAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03081983465036974432noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3726083.post-89107268163109734972009-02-23T15:42:00.000-05:002009-02-23T15:42:00.000-05:00The statement, reportedly made in a book, was this...The statement, reportedly made in a book, was this: "It is an either/or choice: we can either protect the predators or the children." Ah, set up a disjunction with only two alternatives. That's an old trick. (A person is either tall or he is not. A person is good or she is evil. You are with me or against me. A person is either bald or she is not. You either love me or you hate me.) One alternative -- nay more than one -- has escaped the law professor's notice: innocent people wrongly accused of child molestation. (What, this never happens?) Another group neglected in this either/or scenario: false accusers. Do we protect them as well -- and at any price? We should also consider that the choice facing society is surely a matter of degree: e.g., strive to protect people from factually unwarranted legal liability to some degree while also trying to protect molested children to some degree. Or do the interests of innocent people not count? NOTE: I do NOT quarrel with the importance of deterring and punishing the molestation of children. But as important as that interest is, it is not the only important thing in our society. If it were, we would not spend money on art, music, libraries, highways, space, education, etc., and we would devote every penny and every ounce of our energy, time, and money to rooting out child molestation (and we would value education, music, etc., only to the extent that such things inhibit molestation, and not otherwise -- and we would inflict every barbaric punishment imaginable on those accused of molestation and we would convict everyone _accused_ of molestation regardless of the quality of the evidence and ... etc., etc., and we would not do these things only to the extent these measures are counterproductive ... otherwise, hang and shoot them -- and one, well, must break a few eggs, and sometimes many, to make an omelette, no?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03081983465036974432noreply@blogger.com