The Cheat Sheet

In the aftermath of sex-abuse scandals at Penn State — and now Syracuse — one of the most perplexing questions has been about the women who shared the beds of the accused. How on earth could they not have known?

…researchers say that cluelessness is typical: pedophiles’ wives are usually in the dark. What seems to fool the women over and over, says University of Arizona psychologist Judith Becker, is that the abusers are usually charismatic and popular—not creepy loners like the one who lives with his mom in the movie Little Children.