Single Mother Households (SMH) are the most dangerous living arrangement to
Children.
In Single Mother Households, 422 children are fatally abused each year.
In Single Father Households, 25 children are fatally abused each year.
In Dual Parent Families, 16 children are fatally abused each year.
430 children are killed by firearm accidents each year.
Of 430 children killed by firearms, 322 are killed in Single Mother
Households.
Single Mother Households account for 70% of fatal child abuse and accidental
firearm deaths.
Source: Donna Shalala, "National Child Abuse Prevention Month" and "Child
Maltreatment 1994: Reports from the States to the National Center on Child
Abuse and Neglect". Patrick Fagan, Heritage Foundation, "THE CHILD ABUSE
CRISIS: THE DISINTEGRATION OF MARRIAGE, FAMILY, AND THE AMERICAN COMMUNITY",
Rick Thomas, "The Dirty Little Secret: Abuse in Foster Care"
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The Heritage Foundation report "The Child Abuse Crisis: The Disintegration
of Marriage, Family, and the American Community," May 15, 1997 notes that:
"[due to] ... the disintegration of family and community ... America's
infants and young chilren, about 2,000 of whom -- 6 per day -- die each
year," and provides the following estimate:
Total Children Killed Per Year 2,000
Killed by Mothers 1,100 55.0% (+ 25.7% = 80.7% SMH)
Killed by Stepfathers 250 12.5%
Killed by Live-In Boyfriends 513 25.7%
Killed by Biological Fathers 137 6.9%
This study demonstrates that the least dangerous place for a child is with
the father by a margin of over 14 to 1 ( 2000 / 137 = 14.5985 ). Directly or
indirectly, the stepfathers and live-in boyfriends are associated with the
mother's household and therefore a child is conversely 14 times more likely
to be killed in the mother's care. Excluding Stepfathers and Live-in
boyfriends, mothers are 8 times as likely to kill a child than the
biological father ( 1100 / 137 = 8.0291 ).
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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that there were more
than 1,000,000 documented child abuse cases in 1990. In 1983, it found that
60% of perpetrators were women, 1997 it had risen to almost 65%.
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An epidemic of lies, Backlash Magazine, August 1999, Dennis Austin
The use of false allegations in divorce is rapidly becoming an epidemic
which is spreading throughout the world. According to the National Shared
Parenting Association (Saskatchewan Chapter), in Canada a Children's Aid
Society study showed that of 1200 complaints of abuse, 900 involved custody
disputes. Of those 900 allegations, two thirds (600) were found to be false.
Millions of false allegations
In Armin A. Brott's article A system out of control: The epidemic of false
allegations of child abuse, he states, "In California, for example, the
Victim/Witness program will pay directly to a licensed therapist up to
$10,000 per child for counseling - as long as the child was alleged to have
been abused. An additional $10,000 is available to counsel the child's
mother. The only catch: to get their therapy paid for, the child victim and
her mother must see a therapist from an approved list. Guess who directs the
mother to a therapist who would be best for her and her child? CPS, of
course."
These CPS workers often ask leading questions which can distort the
children's memories. In their reports to the court, they often ignore
evidences that would clear the accused, such as lie detector tests and
outside therapist evaluations and rely solely on the child's evaluations
which have been skewed by the CPS and the therapists that they recommend. In
a report disseminated by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect
(NCCAN) Child Maltreatment 1995 Reports From the States to the National
Child Abuse and Neglect Data System depicts more than three million reports
of alleged child abuse and neglect in 1995 of which two million of those
complaints were without foundation.
False allegations of abuse in divorce is an epidemic that is sweeping the
world. Children are becoming heirs to hatred passed down to them from their
parents and because this is all they know, they in turn foster this pain,
hatred and deceptiveness in their own adult relationships. The children are
crushed under the weight of the system and a parent that is only looking out
for their own best interests.
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" ...eighty percent of those polled said they had actually handled a case
where they believed there was false accusation of abuse, as in disputes over
custody of children, for instance."[News Release, from The Dilenschneider
Group Inc., (representing the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers),
Three First National Place, 70 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL 60602,
11/91.] --
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Mary D., Petitioner v. HONORABLE CLARENCE WATT JUDGE OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF
PUTNAM COUNTY AND GEORGE D., RESPONDENTS, [190 W. Va. 34, ; 438 S.E. 2nd
521; 1992 W. Va. LEXIS 76]. In a candid dissenting opinion, Supreme Court
Justice Workman wrote: "We now have a system in which a female parent need
only scream child abuse in a loud voice to keep the male parent from seeing
a child. Indeed, sexual abuse these days seems to arouse all the hysteria
that was associated with witchcraft in yesteryear. In fact, it has even
spawned a witch-huntingesque cottage industry, to-wit badly trained,
ideological rape trauma experts, rape counselors, bachelor level
pseudo-psychologists, social activists, and other assorted species of
Jacklegs. I am a firm believer that the best interests of the child are
paramount, but that does not mean never allowing a father to see his
children when the evidence preponderates on his behalf even though, like an
accused witch, he cannot clear himself beyond any shadow of a doubt.
Continuous yelling and screaming of an accusation does not make that
accusation any more true."
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Telling excerpts from The Booming Domestic Violence Industry, August 2,
1999, John McGuire, Massachusetts News
"The legislature has loosened the standard. Now the person seeking the order
need only state he or she is "in fear" of the other person. It doesn't take
a cynic to point out that when a woman is getting a divorce, what she may
truly fear is not violence, but losing the house or kids. Under 209A, if
she's willing to fib to the judge and say she is "in fear" of her children's
father, she will get custody and money and probably the house."
Long-term emotional damage to children's fathers -- surely not good for
children -- often begins with a restraining order, she says.
"A man against whom a frivolous 209A has been brought starts to lose any
power in his divorce proceeding. They do start decompensating, and they do
start to have emotional issues, and they do start developing post-traumatic
stress disorders. They keep replaying in their minds the tape of what
happened to them in court. It starts this whole vicious downward cycle.
They've been embarrassed and shamed in front of their family and friends,
unjustly, and they totally lose any sense of self-control and self-respect.
They may indeed become verbally abusive. It's difficult for the court to see
where that person was prior to the restraining order."
This is a different era from the 1950s, she points out, and many fathers are
very close to their children, and bond closely with them from an early age.
"In this day and age, we have fathers who take an extremely active role in
parenting -- sometimes more than the mother."
"I call them mother-dads," she says. In many restraining-order cases, she
says, "These fathers are completely frustrated because they can't co-parent
their child because of a restraining order. They have been raped of their
parenting relationship with their child."
While Friend and others see false restraining orders as enormously
destructive, and permanently traumatizing, the $24 million domestic violence
industry is built on the restraining order. Most of the activities that
people get paid for in the domestic violence industry cannot start until a
restraining order has been issued.
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False charges whether they are Domestic Violence, Child Abuse, and Child
Sexual Abuse cases in divorce and custody proceedings are widespread and
rampant. Women are the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of those who employ false
charges, add to these the trauma and emotional damage to children, women
emerge as the most likely to abuse a child for their own personal gain.
In the Mary D., Petitioner (citation omitted) case noted above, we now have
an industry that uses these charges and allegations (false or otherwise) to
prey on families and children. Their entire goal to collect funding is to
"find" (or manufacture if necessary) victims in larger and larger numbers to
justify greater and greater levels of funding.