Liberia, July 28 -- The first time they came, they brought L$18,000 (US$100). The second time the family brought a lapa, a traditional cloth.

When the family, whose 24-year-old son had been accused by multiple witnesses of raping the 57-year-old grandmother in broad daylight in front of her small grandson, arrived with the cloth, the woman says she understood exactly what it meant.

"The boy ma bring the lapa; That the cloth her son take from on me," she said in Liberian English. "That the cloth she come put back on me."

She understood what the money was for too. "They are begging so I can agree so they can free their son."

Most victims in Liberia eventually accept the money. Though the grandmother says she badly wants justice, she is...