False Accusations:  Is There an Epidemic of Child Abuse in America?

by Charlton Hall

Staff Writer

Child abuse is a terrible thing.  It should not be tolerated by any civilized society.  It is not my intention in this article to belittle serious assaults on children by their parents.  But almost as serious as child abuse is the abuse of the legal system which robs a person of his good reputation when forced to fight false accusations of child abuse.

Child abuse is a serious problem in America.  But there is also an alarming trend in the Family Court system of labeling fathers as abusers.  False accusations of child abuse by the father have become a bargaining tool in some divorce cases.  Unfortunately, many fathers are forced into expensive litigation to prove their innocence in such cases.  And for those who cannot afford the expense of a legal battle, it is easier to give up and have their reputation ruined rather than to bankrupt themselves.  Unlike criminal child abuse cases, an accusation of child abuse in Family Court is a civil action, therefore the ground rules make it much easier to falsely accuse someone. 

Is child abuse by the fathers of America rampant?  The statistics don’t support this myth.  The following information is from the Federal publication Child Maltreatment 1998, which is based on responses from the States to the 1998 Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting System (NCANDS):

¥ Of the estimated 2,806,000 referrals received, approximately one-third (34%) were screened out and two-thirds (66%) were transferred for investigation or assessment.

¥ Slightly fewer than one-third of investigations (29.2%) resulted in a disposition of either substantiated or indicated child maltreatment. More than half (57.2%) resulted in a finding that child maltreatment was not substantiated. More than a tenth (13.6%) received another disposition.

¥ More than half of all victims (53.5%) suffered neglect, while almost a quarter (22.7%) suffered physical abuse. Nearly 12 percent of the victims (11.5%) were sexually abused. Victims of psychological abuse and medical neglect accounted for 6 percent or fewer each. In addition, a quarter of victims (25.3%) were reported to be victims of more than one type of maltreatment.

¥ Three-fifths (60.4%) of perpetrators were female.

¥ The most common pattern of maltreatment was a child neglected by a female parent with no other perpetrators identified (44.7%).

¥ Victims of physical and sexual abuse, compared to victims of neglect and medical neglect, were more likely to be maltreated by a male parent acting alone. However, in cases of sexual abuse, 44.1% were abused by female parents, female relatives, or other females.

¥ 33,000 children who were not victims were placed in the care and supervision of child welfare agencies, either in protective supervision or for a time during the investigation.

What do these numbers mean?  That for every ten accusations of child abuse reported, only three are substantiated.  And of those three that are substantiated, two of them were victimized by a female. It is also interesting that 33,000 children who were not victims were taken into custody by child welfare agencies.  Could this be another case of ‘guilty until proven innocent’?

According to the NCANDS, three-fifths of substantiated child abuse cases were perpetuated by females.  So why does our Family Court System continue to foster the myth that fathers are the abusers?

Next week:  Child support horror stories