As a lawyer practicing in the field, a few more comments.
Some of the comments here are throwing out too many roadblocks to criminal prosecution. I’ve accompanied abuse victims to District Attorney offices in several counties here in the New York area, and I can relate that the process of prosecution is fair and very civilized. I’ve seen the DA and police question victims. The police and DAs are generally empathetic, trained, and highly educated people, and they’re doing a good job. Not a perfect job, but a good job, and let’s remember, Torah lo sh’bashamayim hi, the Torah wasn’t given to angels, we fallible mortals are to apply the Torah in our daily lives, including in the justice system. A US Supreme Court Justice once wrote, A defendant is entitled to a fair trial, not a perfect trial.
I would also add that false child abuse claims are very rare, especially in the age bracket of 6-7 through late teens. I don’t have the precise statistics in front of me, but about 95 percent
of children are telling the truth. The false claims in the past arise from situations where pre-school children have been coached by extremely zealous prosecution investigators; and also in custody battles. Here in the NY area, we’ve seen very, very few false child abuse claims in our frum community since the cases started happening the last few years.
Not believing children in the past has caused terrible results. Parents and children have therefore been discouraged from prosecuting, and the molesters continued inflicting damage.
I don’t believe we need to make a pilpul out of child molestation. When the typical case is the child relating that an adult did something strange to him, and the parent sees adverse behavioral changes (altered mood, poor school work, inappropriate conduct, bed wetting, etc.), you report the crime to the police.