Throughout history children have lied to escape punishment for a crime they committed. One example would have to be in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, where a group of girls are discovered dancing, which is forbidden in the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. The young girls realize they have done wrong and like all children don't want to be punished. Abigail Williams one of the main characters begins naming people who are "witches." Abigail being the rotten child she is sees this as a way to point the blame. Over time she gains much power, which she uses in ways that many would never believe. Abigail soon changed all of Salem with the power she gained by lying. .
Many would say that Abigail was a normal child with just a touch of rottenness, like all children she did not much like being punished. In the beginning of the play a young girl of Betty is some how "magically bewitched." Mr. Parris who is Betty's father, Abigail's uncle, and the minister of Salem happens to be the one who catches the girls dancing in the forest. Of course the girls were doing more then just dancing, they also "conjured spirits," one of the girls by the name of Mercy is seen running naked in the forest, and in Abigail's case drank chicken blood to kill the wife of the man she dearly loves. But of course when Abigail is questioned of the incident in the forest she simply leaves everything but the dancing out. .
Soon everyone knows of how Betty lies in bed not being able to wake. Soon some of the other girls arrive to see why Betty cannot wake. They begin talking and some of the girls want to just confess so they can get a lighter punishment but Abigail being the ring leader of the group steps in. "Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.