Childhood Sexual Abuse

From time to time when I can't find anything to watch on television, I will turn to the Talk Shows. Well, yesterday was one of those days. I was flipping through the channels and came across the Steve Wilkos show. Every time I watch these shows, the people who appear on these shows amaze me. I give Steve Wilkos a little more credit than the others because he does try and do some good.
Yesterday, the show was about a 13 year old girl who was accusing her step father of attempting to sexually molest her. Her mother didn't believe her. This is something so common among women. They take their boyfriend's side or their new husband's side over their own child. Some women just refuse to believe the truth. Her husband had not only tried to sexually abuse her, he physically abused the girl and the mother knew about the physical abuse, but she kept making excuses for the abuse. He beat her with a belt (really beat her excessively), smacked her across the face hard and on one occasion held her down on the bed with his body and had his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Now, this was the occasion in question. He told his wife he was holding her down and covering her mouth to keep her from screaming when she walked in the room. She didn't ask "Why are trying to keep her from screaming?" That would be my question. The girl claims, he was trying to keep her from screaming because he was trying to unbutton her pants. The lie detector test came back that he was lying and the daughter was telling the truth. The girls real father tries going after him immediately and when he was stopped, he drops to his knees sobbing. The funny thing about it the mother didn't even cry at first. Not until after Steve talks to her.
In the summer of 2009, I completed my internship working as a Child and Family Advocate and I wrote my Thesis on advocating for children and families where there are allegations of abuse. I worked with the families during and after the interviews of children where there were allegations of sexually abuse. I would have to say, that a good 50% of cases that came through there were cases where the mother doesn't believe the child and cases where the man has had previous cases of child sexual abuse allegations against him. The crazy thing is, the mother makes light of the situation and says the child is exaggerating for one reason or another. I have heard stories of child sexual abuse that would give the average person nightmares. Stories of where I had to sit there and fight back the tears and then run into the bathroom and cry. It just really angers me when I see mothers who refuse to believe their own child. If their child was raped by a complete stranger, would they brush it off as the child was exaggerating? Probably not. So, why is it so difficult to believe when their own child is saying it is their boyfriend or their new husband?