Personality Characteristics of Parents Making False Accusations of Sexual abuse in Custody Disputes
by Hollida Wakefield & Ralph Underwager
Following is an excerpt from this article which may be accessed here. Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager are psychologists at the Institute for Psychological Therapies, 5263 130th Street East, Northfield, MN 55057-4880. This research was presented at the Sixth Annual Symposium in Forensic Psychology in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 13, 1990, at the Second Annual Convention of the American Psychological Society in Dallas, Texas, on June 9, 1990, and at the 98th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 14, 1990. Although this information has aged almost 20 years since it was first presented, little has been done to reduce the rate of false allegations in family law courts.
There is not agreement as to how many of these cases turn out to be false, although most of the estimates range from one-third to four-fifths. Thoennes and her colleagues report that in 33% of the cases in their survey, no abuse was believed to have occurred. Abuse was believed likely in 50% and in 17% no determination could be reached (Thoennes & Pearson 1988a & b; Thoennes & Tjaden, 1990). However, the decision as to whether the abuse was factual was made by custody evaluators and child protection workers rather than by the justice system.
Most professionals believe that the proportion of false allegations of child sexual abuse is highest in divorce and custody disputes. Out of approximately 500 cases in which we have provided expert consultation in the past six years involving sexual abuse accusations, 40% were divorce and custody cases. Of these divorce and custody cases that have been adjudicated, for three-fourths there was no determination of abuse by the legal system. That is, charges were dropped or never filed or the person was acquitted in criminal court, or there was no finding of abuse in family court.
Dwyer (1986) reports similar statistics. She states that 77% of the divorce-linked allegations of sex abuse cases coming to the Human Sexuality Program at the University of Minnesota have turned out to be “hoax” cases. This was based upon the opinion reached by the agency staff that the allegations were not accurate.
In our experience, accusations of sexual abuse occur in a bitter and acrimonious divorce at all stages of the process. Benedek and Schetky (1985a) report that they were especially common in disputes about child custody that arise after a divorce has been granted and center around issues of visitation.
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