Ross E. Cheit

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]

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

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 most of those accused in alleged day-care sex-abuse hysteria cases, including the Country Walk case, the McMartin preschool trial,[3][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 law 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. "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. Cheit, Ross E. (2014). "The McMartin Preschool Case (1983–1990)". Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199931224.001.0001. ISBN 9780199931224 – via oxford.universitypressscholarship.com.
  4. "The Witch Hunt Narrative: Rebuttal". The National Center for Reason and Justice. 2015. Archived from the original on 2015-10-17.
  5. Cheit, Ross E.; Mervis, David (2007). "Myths About the Country Walk Case". Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. 16 (3): 95–116. doi:10.1300/J070v16n03_06. ISSN 1547-0679. PMID 18032242. S2CID 27645676.
  6. Cheit, Ross E. (2017). "A Response to Articles and Commentaries on the Witch-Hunt Narrative". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 32 (6): 1002–1023. doi:10.1177/0886260516688889. ISSN 1552-6518. PMID 30145970. S2CID 52090559.
  7. "Debunking Frontline's Did Daddy Do It?". April 24, 2002. Archived from the original on 2003-08-18.
  8. King, Michael (2017-06-20). "Kellers Exonerated!". 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. Wood, James M.; Nathan, Debbie; Beck, Richard; Hampton, Keith (2017). "A Critical Evaluation of the Factual Accuracy and Scholarly Foundations of The Witch-Hunt Narrative". Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 32 (6): 897–925. doi:10.1177/0886260516657351. ISSN 1552-6518. PMID 30145966. S2CID 52091302.
  11. Johnson, KC (September 2014). "Revisionism Gone Wild: The Witch-Hunt Narrative by Ross E. Cheit". Commentary Magazine. Archived 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.
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