Rock Center
Few would have believed that Jerry Sandusky would agree to a TV interview barely a week after his arrest on child sex abuse charges. But that's exactly what happened when NBC's Bob Costas questioned the former Penn State assistant coach last November. Prosecutors considered the interview, excerpted here, to be so important to their case that they entered it into evidence, and portions of it were played in open court. Since Sandusky did not take the stand during his trial, it was jurors’ only opportunity to hear Sandusky respond in his own words to the serious charges against him. Both the defense and prosecution cited the Costas interview in their closing arguments.
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Brilliant interview of Jerry Sandusky by Bob Costas that could be titled, "To Catch a Predator." Please listen to hear what it sounds like for someone to rationalize and lie to your face. Then you may want to throw up at the end when Sandusky tries to make you feel pity for him as the " poor innocent victim" of all those liars out there out to mar his character.
And when you watch the news and hear his wife speak - even under oath - listen to the way a person can rationalize and deny anything. But remember that the same phenomenon of dissociation that can allow sexual abuse victims to survive and carry on a "normal" life after the trauma they suffered, can be the very same psychological defense mechanism that can make a pedophile or an enabler (such as a wife) to sometimes actually be able to believe their own lies. That's what's so insidious.
We must stop giving the lying perpetrators the benefit of the doubt just because it makes us feel better to believe them that such a horrendous crime never took place. And we must make it safe for children to speak and we must begin to believe them, as much as it makes us cringe to hear the sometimes ugly truth.