SOME MOMS LET SEX ABUSE SLIDE (They Hope to Shield Partners; Kids Suffer)

When police and prosecutors try to arrest a child molester, they sometimes face an unlikely adversary, the victim's mother.  Mothers are even able to convince their children to refuse to cooperate with investigators, or even recant the allegations.  There is now way to tell how many sex-abuse cases are remaining a secret because of the silence of the mother.  A woman's loyalty to her mate may even lead her to choose to live with him rather than her children.  Roughly 10 percent of mothers choose to surrender their children to foster care rather than kick their men out of the house when faced with a court order requiring the removal of the suspect from the home.  But then, some mothers disown their partners on the spot when they learn their children have been abused.