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CHILD ABUSE BY RELATIONSHIP TO PERPETRATOR, PENNSYLVANIA 1999

 

Implications for Custody Recommendations

One of the only apparently valid arguments opponents have left in arguing against father custody and/or joint physical custody is the persistent perception that males are more abusive than females in the home.  Therefore, for advocates of father custody or joint physical custody, it is important to analyze statistics on child abuse.  One problem with these figures is that they are either not compiled regularly, depending on the state or federal agency, or the lag time between perpetration and compilation can take several years.  Thus, the most recent statistics available tend to appear somewhat old.  I was therefore quite pleased to be able to obtain in May of 2000 the 1999 Annual Report on Child Abuse by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare.  My last available booklet was from 1997 and it was gratifying to note that, first of all, the number of total abuses had fallen, from 9,789 total cases in 1997 to 8,687 cases in 1999, in other words, more than 10%.

 Although one can only speculate as to the causes for the decrease in total child abuse cases, we know of three factors that may have affected these statistics.  For one thing, welfare was, until recent years, paid to mothers based on the number of children they had.  That is no longer the case.  Therefore, some of the extreme cases, such as that of Charney Wise, the five-year-old girl who was literally starved to death by her mother in Philadelphia two years ago (and who admitted she kept the child for the money), are declining in number as these dangerous mothers lose their monetary incentive to bear children, are therefore taking birth control measures or abstaining from sex, and their children are either leaving home or aging beyond the higher risk ages of 10 to 14 yr.  Further, I believe some gains have been made in child protective policies that enable children to be taken out of dangerous settings where they once were left, sometimes to die, as in the much publicized case of Maxwell Fisher. Partly as a result of local activism on the part of the Maxwell Fisher Memorial Committee, House hearings were held on CYA shortly after the Maxwell Fisher case that affected Berks and Lancaster Counties, as result of which CYA underwent a major overhaul statewide and the net effect is earlier and more effective intervention.  Finally, I know of at least one report stating that joint custody is becoming increasingly common in America.  That may apply to Pennsylvania, at least to some extent.

Another remarkable finding between the two sets of statistics is that, whereas there were 1,419 mothers and 1,103 fathers who were confirmed to have caused physical injuries in 1997, the ratio was 1,174 mothers to 955 fathers in 1999, approaching parity.  Here, the presumed increase in father custody and joint custody as well as the absence of welfare incentives to have children may have been at work.  Consider that the ages of children at the time of abuse clustered around 10-14 yr.  As time goes on, more and more of the dangerous mothers who had children primarily because of the now unavailable welfare incentive will see their children age beyond that dangerous period and some will have their children leave home.  Thus, I believe we can expect to see a further decrease in the percentage of mothers among perpetrators as time goes on.

I chose to analyze the figures for physical injuries, sexual abuse and physical neglect.  The remaining categories of mental injuries and imminent risk have very small numbers compared to the three categories I analyzed.

My percentage breakdowns of paramours and household members according to sex are based on two assumptions: 1) that custody in PA is awarded to mothers in about 90% of the cases, and 2) an extrapolation from the gender breakdown of stepmother perpetrators, which shows in some categories less than 10% stepmother involvement. This would provide a wide enough margin of error in the first assumption to allow for at least double the percentage of father custody assumed here. However, it is even more likely that the differential reflects the actual custody situation, ie, a situation of substantially less than 10% father custody. Either way, it seems safe to use the assumption of a 10/90 ratio in favor of mother custody in the status quo.

Sexual Child Abuse

In the sexual abuse category, mothers were 394 perpetrators and fathers 889.

Note that in a high percentage of cases, conviction of a father is based on DNA evidence. In the case of the mothers, such evidence is rare. This is a selection factor in favor of father detection and to the detriment of mother detection. If we knew the number of cases confirmed by DNA analyses and if we considered only those cases without DNA evidence, we would get a figure closer to that found for mothers. The booklet used for this analysis did not include percentage of perpetrators of sexual abuse whose involvement was confirmed by DNA evidence.

One of the more fascinating subcategories was that of "promoting prostitution," for which there were 5 mothers and only 1 father.  For pornography, the ratio was essentially reversed (7 mothers, 18 fathers).  For incest, there were 38 mothers and 138 fathers.  For rape, 48 mothers and 99 fathers.  The latter figures are surprising when one considers the difficulty a woman has in raping someone.  For statutory rape, the figures were 34 mothers and 55 fathers.

Most analyses of sexual child abuse focus on the difference between fathers and mothers, and as a result, mothers are often seen in the legal system as the preferred choice for custody, particularly of daughters.  However, there is a category that I refer to as the parent's "retinue."  These are stepmothers, stepfathers, paramours and household members (in Pennsylvania, this latter term is defined to include spouses or acting spouses who are not stepmothers or stepfathers) that the custodial parent introduces into the family.  In this category I omit siblings, foster parents, daycare staff, legal guardians, babysitters (which, incidentally, account for a very large percentage of child abuses), teachers, principals, guidance counselors, other school staff, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, ex-parents, other relatives and others.  The latter group is essentially unaffected by custody decisions.

Analyzing the mother's retinue, we have 370 stepfather perpetrators and, because of the preponderantly female custody situation, the bulk of the 459 paramours and 489 household members who committed child abuse in 1999.   From the 459, I subtracted 10% to account for the assumption that mothers get custody 90% of the time, and calculated that 413 were attached to the mother (mother's retinue).  Further, subtracting 10% from the 489 household members, I calculated 440 for mothers.  The grand total then for mothers and their retinue was 1,617 total sexual abuses.

For fathers, in addition to the above-cited 889 sexual abuses they committed themselves, there were 14 stepmothers (versus 370 for stepfathers!) and, because of the very low incidence of father custody, only a very small percentage of the 459 paramours and 489 household members who committed sexual child abuse in 1999.  I subtracted 90% from the 459 paramours and 90% from the 489 household members for a total of 46 and 49, respectively, to account, again, for the fact that roughly 10% of custody awards go to men vs 90% for women.  The grand total sex abuses for father and retinue was therefore 998.

Thus, the practice of awarding custody to mothers would seem, on its surface, to have caused as many as 619 additional child abuses in 1999.

However, we must also consider that some of these fathers were unavailable (runaways, unfit).  Further, some may themselves have proven child abusive if given the opportunity.  In order to get an idea of how many abusive fathers one could expect in this population, one would have to know the number of fathers in Pennsylvania and calculate the percentage of abuses per father.  At this time, I do not have these figures available.  However, we can assume that the number of fathers with young children in Pennsylvania is in the millions so that the chances of these less than a thousand fathers who lost custody being abusive are, all thing being equal, probably not very high.

Further, in my work with non-custodial parents (200 + parents so far), I have encountered numerous fathers who were not allowed to visit their children based on unsubstantiated claims by their ex-wives.  I have not yet run across a mother who lost custody to a father based on such a claim.  Hence, it appears that there are a large number of fathers who are denied custody because of an endemic bias in the legal system.

Table 1. Sexual abuse by relationship with perpetrator

Mother:  394

Mother's Retinue:

Stepfather: 370

Paramour:  459 minus  10% = 413

Household Member:  489  minus 10% = 440

Total Mother and Mother's Retinue:  1,617 sexual child abuses

 

Father:  889

Father's Retinue: 

Stepmothers:  14

Paramours:  459 minus 90% = 46

Household Members:  489   90% = 49

Total Father and Father's Retinue:  998

Maximum excess child abuse due to the preponderant awarding of custody to mothers:  619 (38%) excess sexual child abuses.

Physical Abuse

As in 1997, mothers still lead in physical child abuse, but the differential between mothers and fathers has narrowed.

I performed the same analysis as for sexual abuses, breaking down the figures according to mother/mother's retinue and father/father's retinue.  The totals for physical abuse were 1,174 mothers and 955 fathers among child abusers in 1999.  The mother's retinue included 179 cases for stepfathers, 342 minus 10% = 308 for paramours and 162 minus 10% = 146 for household members, for a grand total of 1,807 physical child abuses attributable to the mother custody situation.

Fathers had 955 cases on their own plus 20 cases for stepmothers (versus 179 for stepfathers!), 342 minus 90% = 34 for their paramours and 162 minus 90% = 16 for their  household members for a grand total of 1,025 abuses attributable to fathers and their retinue.

The difference between the grand totals shows a maximum of 822 excess cases attributable to the practice of awarding custody primarily to mothers.  Again, most of the same caveats apply as for sexual abuse, but since in the case of physical abuse, mothers and fathers are roughly equal, this 822 excess child abuses is probably quite close to the actual number of excess cases.

Table 2. Physical Child abuse

Mother:  1,174

Mother's Retinue:

Stepfather:  179

Paramour:  342 minus  10% = 308

Household Member:  162  minus 10% = 146

Total Physical Abuse by Mother and Mother's Retinue:  1,807

Father:  955

Father's Retinue: 

Stepmother:  20

Paramour:  342 minus 90% = 34

Household Member:  162  minus 90% = 16

Total Physical Abuse by Father and Father's Retinue:  1,025

Neglect

Here, mothers are clearly in the lead, with 262 cases versus 87 for fathers.  In this case, the retinues on both sides contributed little.  7 perps were stepfathers, 7 minus 10% = 6 were paramours and 16 minus  10% = 14 were household members attached to the mother.  In the father's case, there were 3 stepmothers, 7 minus 90% = 1 paramour and 16  minus 90% = 3 household members attached to the father.

Thus, mothers accounted for about two thirds of child neglect in Pennsylvania in 1999.

Table 3 Neglect

Mother:  262

Mother's Retinue:

Stepfather:  7

Paramour:  7 minus 10% = 6

Household Member:  16 minus 10% = 14

Total Neglect by Mother and Mother's Retinue:  289

Father:  87

Father's Retinue:  

Stepmother:  3

Paramour:  7 minus  90% = 1

Household Member:  16 minus  90% = 3

Total Neglect by Father and Father's Retinue:  93

Total Child Abuses by Relationship of Perpetrator in Pennsylvania in 1999

Mothers accounted for 2,080 total child abuses versus 2,068 for fathers in 1999.  The mothers' retinues added 574 for stepfathers, 838 minus 10% = 755 for paramours and 680 minus 10% = 612 for household members, for a total of 4,021 child abuses attributable to mother custody.

Fathers themselves accounted for 2,068, almost the same number as for mothers, in contrast to 1997, when mothers predominated by a wide margin.

Stepmothers added 44 cases, in addition to 838 minus 90% = 83 for paramours and 680  minus 90% = 68 for household members, for a grand total of 2,263 attributable to father custody.  The habit of awarding custody predominantly to mothers therefore may have added as many as 1,758 excess child abuses to the system in Pennsylvania in 1999.

Comments and Conclusions

The fact that parent-paramour relationships make up only 12% of the abuse backgrounds weights the implications of the large number of abuses due to paramours considerably, suggesting that the existence of a paramour in a single-parent household is a major risk factor. It would seem that the introduction of a male paramour, presumed to be vastly predominant over female paramours in our population, is an especially important risk factor. The enormous difference between the number of stepfathers vs stepmothers as abusers also suggests that the father's retinue adds very little risk, although this differential could be due primarily to a difference in the percentage of father vs mother custody awards, such that fathers may actually be awarded custody much less than the assumed 10%. Therefore, further study is warranted here.

Given that 34% of abused children live with two parents while 67% live either with a single parent or with the parent and a paramour and the rest with other alternative arrangements, two-parent families are safer for children.  Father versus mother custody was not an issue for 9% of children living in alternative arrangements.  However, in the 67% of the cases where children lived with single parents plus parent and paramours, it was very much an issue.  But because even the suspicion of abuse by a father will normally preclude any possibility of custody for the father in Pennsylvania, one might suppose that, of the 67% of abused children living in broken homes, an even higher percentage than 90% were with mothers rather than fathers.

The 34% of abused children in two-parent homes is problematic, since we can infer that the step parents fall into this category. The large percentages of child abuses attributed to step parents, paramours and household members suggests that the traditional classification that omits the category of intact families, ie, families in which the children live with both biological parents who are married to each other, should be revised by the Department of Welfare to include the intact family category, which we suspect, on the basis of these data, to be the safest arrangement for children. This would enable researchers to either confirm or refute this suspicion with concrete data.