ABSTRACT
There is a paradoxical character to an allegation o f child sexual abuse: The substantiation o f its truth in any one case only engenders doubt that truth will be found in any other. Certainty and skepticism are ju x ta posed. This paradox is neither an invention o f the current time nor an artifact o f the moment; it is, instead, a contradiction that has persisted unresolved for the century that child sexual abuse has been defined as a social problem.
