Comment by jacquesm

That's the whole point here, isn't it: that 'what you've heard' isn't credible at all. There is no 'polite fiction' here, what there is is people looking for culprits when there are none. Does that meant that all such cases are accidents? No, because we know for a fact that some people really do hurt infants for whatever reason. But the evidence is apparently such that a large fraction of the cases that were thought to be criminal in actuality were not. So don't go on rumors or polite fictions when lives are at stake. Do the legwork before ruining people's lives.