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Oversimplified beliefs about child abuse allegations in custody cases with alienation rebuttals – review of empirical data
... As has been carefully elaborated and explained by Milchman (2019), proposed tools and diagnostic tests claiming to detect so-called PA (including PARQ, an instrument that in fact assesses whether children believe they are being rejected by a parent, and PAD) areat bestsets of criteria which apply equally if not more so to children's reactions to destructive or abusive parents. Many of the 'typical behaviours' listed in the checklists to 'diagnose' PA can equally be associated with numerous childhood adversities (such as negative parenting practices, domestic violence and abuse, extensive parental conflict, excessive litigation, mental health issues, children's realistic fear, lack of parent-child warmth and weak parental attachments with the allegedly alienated parent) (Neilson 2018;Milchman 2022Milchman , 2024). Children's alignment with one parent over another can be a normal consequence of child development or a normal reaction to parental separation (Kelly and Johnson 2001;Mercer 2021b). ...
On the 4th of June 2024, 13 Swedish academics (including the lead author, who is based at UCL in London, UK) and psychologists raised caution related to the use of the so-called ‘parental alienation' belief system in Swedish Family Courts through the article ‘Parental Alienation is Pseudoscience’ published in the Swedish magazine directed at psychologists, ‘Psykologtidningen’. This was followed by two rebuttals both published on the 12th of June 2024, one by a Swedish academic and another by a Swedish journalist. We, a group of 105 international academics, health- and legal professionals from 18 countries, have therefore come together to provide a final rebuttal to the two critical responses claiming that the original article ‘Parental Alienation is Pseudoscience’ lacks scientific basis and is misrepresentative. In this response, we outline the scientific evidence that our original statement builds on and meet the criticism in detail.
The practice of forensic psychology requires awareness of fundamental changes in the law, which may alter processes and competencies in addressing psychological questions. Throughout the United States, legislative changes in child custody law are requiring adaptations in practices to meet new standards. This article explores new legislation and its impact on child custody evaluators. Several important concepts and topics emerge from the required training in child abuse and domestic violence, which are also further addressed in this article.
Family court and abuse professionals have long been polarized over the use of parental alienation claims to discredit a mother alleging the father has been abusive or is unsafe for the children. This paper reports the findings from an empirical study of ten years U.S. of cases involving abuse and alienation claims. The findings confirm that mothers’ claims of abuse, especially child physical or sexual abuse, increase their risk of losing custody, and that fathers’ cross-claims of alienation virtually double that risk. Alienation’s impact is gender-specific; fathers alleging mothers are abusive are not similarly undermined when mothers cross-claim alienation. In non-abuse cases, however, the data suggest that alienation has a more gender-neutral impact. These nuanced findings may help abuse and alienation professionals find some common ground.
Allegations that a parent has manipulated a child to turn against the other parent raise complex issues challenging child custody evaluators, expert witnesses, and courts. A key issue relates to false positive identifications of parental alienation—concluding that parental alienation exists in cases where it really does not. Such mistaken conclusions fuel concerns about the application of parental alienation in family law cases and contribute to skepticism about the concept. This article discusses mistaken conclusions that a child is alienated and that a parent has engaged in a campaign of alienating behavior. The article emphasizes that evaluators should thoroughly investigate reasonable alternative explanations of the children’s and parents’ behaviors, including attention to seven criteria that distinguish irrationally alienated children from children whose negative or rejecting behaviors do not constitute parental alienation. Evaluators should also investigate various reasons for a child’s preference for one parent. Further, alienating behavior—seen in different degrees of intensity, frequency, and duration—can reflect different motivations. Evaluators, experts, and judges who do not attend to the nuances of alienating behaviors are likely to reach false conclusions about the significance of the behaviors and make recommendations that do not serve children’s best interests. Finally, evaluators should attend to their overt and covert judgment biases and to the complexity of parental alienation issues in order to reduce the likelihood of faulty opinions that a child is alienated, or that a parent has engaged in alienating behaviors.
This article presents findings and recommendations based on an in-depth examination of records from 27 custody cases from across the United States. The goal of this case series was to determine why family courts may place children with a parent that the child alleges abused them rather than with the nonoffending parent. We focused on “turned around cases” involving allegations of child abuse that were at first viewed as false and later judged to be valid. The average time a child spent in the court ordered custody of an abusive parent was 3.2 years. In all cases we uncovered the father was the abusive parent and the mother sought to protect their child. Results revealed that initially courts were highly suspicious of mothers' motives for being concerned with abuse. These mothers were often treated poorly and two-thirds of the mothers were pathologized by the court for advocating for the safety of their children. Judges who initially ordered children into custody or visitation with abusive parents relied mainly on reports by custody evaluators and guardians ad litem who mistakenly accused mothers of attempting to alienate their children from the father or having coached the child to falsely report abuse. As a result, 59% of perpetrators were given sole custody and the rest were given joint custody or unsupervised visitation. After failing to be protected in the first custody determination, 88% of children reported new incidents of abuse. The abuse often became increasingly severe and the children's mental and physical health frequently deteriorated. The main reason that cases turned around was because protective parents were able to present compelling evidence of the abuse and back the evidence up with reports by mental health professionals who had specific expertise in child abuse rather than merely custody assessment.
Parental Alienation: The Handbook for Mental Health and Legal Professionals is the essential “how to” manual in this important and ever increasing area of behavioral science and law. Busy mental health professionals need a reference guide to aid them in developing data sources to support their positions in reports and testimony. They also need to know where to go to find the latest material on a topic. Having this material within arm’s reach will avoid lengthy and time-consuming online research. For legal professionals who must ground their arguments in well thought out motions and repeated citations to case precedent, ready access to state or province specific legal citations spanning thirty-five years of parental alienation cases is provided here for the first time in one place.
Objectives: Identifying child custody dispute characteristics that are associated with child
maltreatment investigations are important for improving child protection services. Our
objectives were to explore the characteristics of child custody disputes within the context
of child protection investigations and to determine the ways in which child maltreatment
investigations involving child custody disputes differ from those investigations that do
not involve such disputes.
Methods: Data were from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and
Neglect (collection 2008) from 112 child welfare sites across Canada.
Results: Of the estimated 235,842 child maltreatment investigations in Canada in
2008, estimated 29,218 investigations involved child custody dispute cases (12.4%).
Approximately 22.7% of child custody dispute investigations involved allegations
of neglect, 16.7% involved an allegation of physical abuse 20.3% involved exposure
to domestic violence, 9.7% involved emotional maltreatment, and 5.3% involved an
allegation of sexual abuse.
Implications: Child protection workers must not assume that maltreatment allegations
are false or unfounded simply because a custody dispute is also present. More attention is
needed to explore ways to engage with families involved in child custody disputes so that
they can better cope with the complexities of family breakdown.
The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of what child custody evaluators and
other professionals believe regarding allegations of domestic abuse made by parents going
through a divorce. The study had several major goals:
to investigate the extent to which child custody evaluators and other professionals who
make court recommendations believe allegations of domestic violence are false;
to explore the relationship between these beliefs and (a) knowledge of domestic
violence and (b) recommendations about custody, supervised visitation, and mediation;
to examine whether beliefs about false allegations of domestic violence are related to
beliefs that false allegations of child abuse are common; abuse of parents should not be
a criterion in custody and visitation decisions; and that parents often alienate their
children from the other parent; to examine the relationships between beliefs about false allegations and beliefs about patriarchal norms, social dominance, and justice in the world.
We also conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 24 domestic abuse survivors who
experienced negative custody-visitation outcomes, such as losing custody of their children.
When children witness or experience criminal events, the first people they go to are generally parents. Typically, no one else is privy to these conversations, and consequently little is known about their specific content. Research has shown that children can be quite accurate witnesses at times. However, they can also incorporate information from misleading and suggestive questions into their recall, and once their event memory has been changed, children may be unable to provide accurate reports. It is important then to assess parent-child discussions about crime. In the present study, 7- to 10-year-old children watched a video of a theft and talked about it with a parent immediately afterwards, and half had a second immediate interview with a researcher. All were interviewed by a different interviewer 1 week later. Results showed that: parents relied on direct and yes/no questions; children made errors of commission in response to questions; some parents asked leading or misleading questions; children incorporated all correct information from leading questions and nearly 40% of incorrect information from misleading questions; children provided additional information when interviewed by an interviewer 1 week later; and children remained relatively accurate in their descriptions but some were more accurate with parents than with an interviewer 1 week later. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Magellan sits among a complex set of expectations, at the intersection of a range of agencies and systems involved in responding to issues of child abuse allegations in family law matters. It is important to understand the role of family courts - to resolve private law issues, such as parenting matters, in children's best interests - and how this differs from the role of police, child protection departments, forensic investigators, Directors of Public Prosecutions, and criminal courts in protecting children, enforcing laws and bringing criminals to justice.
Each of the agencies and systems has overlapping interests, yet distinct responsibilities. It was this "black spot" intersection that necessitated a case-management system to coordinate and bring together information from each of these areas to ensure that private family law disputes are resolved in a timely way that provides for the safety and ongoing best interests of children. Central to ensuring the best interests of children is the need to balance their right to know and have a relationship with both parents, with the paramount need to be protected from harm. Despite research in the social sciences that shows the frequency with which sexual abuse and serious physical abuse of children occurs, significant difficulty exists in proving the occurrence of child abuse, as the private nature of the crimes result in a lack of evidence that meets the requirements of criminal courts.
Participants thought that the Magellan case-management pathway was an excellent one, and that, to the degree that it was implemented faithfully and adequately resourced (particularly with appropriate judicial time, while avoiding the risk of overburdening Judges), it was achieving its aims. Implementation issues were raised about the lack of fidelity to the original model (especially in Queensland), and the need for high quality, timely reports (and oral evidence) from experts.
Magellan matters were believed to be shorter, often resolving without judicial determination. Participants felt that Magellan delivers better outcomes for children and families. A critical element to this is the tight case-management procedures, particularly the role of Magellan Judges and Registrars. The importance placed on Magellan matters by the Court is reflected in the role that Judges play, and this was seen as one of the ways that the process gives parties a sense of procedural fairness. Through the Magellan stakeholder meetings and the protocols outlining the role of the state/territory statutory child protection department in providing the short, focused "Magellan Report", cooperation with the statutory child protection department was seen as critical to the success of Magellan.
When serious allegations of sexual abuse or physical abuse of children are raised in parenting matters, the Magellan case-management system is a significant improvement to the Family Court's previous procedures for handling these matters. There are areas for improvement and opportunities to ensure adequate resources (in terms of finance, personnel and 'corporate history') for its sustainability. However, the results of this evaluation support the findings of the pilot study, which also showed Magellan's success - particularly in reducing the length of matters, and the number of Court events, as well as satisfaction of the professional stakeholders involved (Brown, Sheehan, Frederico, & Hewitt, 2001).
Magellan needs to be understood within the broader socio-legal framework that connects child protection with family law dispute resolution. At the individual level, a lack of understanding of how the Family Court interacts with police, child protection departments, juvenile courts and criminal courts sees Magellan often subject to unrealistic expectations by parties.
Parental alienation is an important phenomenon that mental health professionals should know about and thoroughly understand, especially those who work with children, adolescents, divorced adults, and adults whose parents divorced when they were children. We define parental alienation as a mental condition in which a child—usually one whose parents are engaged in a high-conflict divorce—allies himself or herself strongly with one parent (the preferred parent) and rejects a relationship with the other parent (the alienated parent) without legitimate justification. This process leads to a tragic outcome when the child and the alienated parent, who previously had a loving and mutually satisfying relationship, lose the nurture and joy of that relationship for many years and perhaps for their lifetimes. The authors of this article believe that parental alienation is not a minor aberration in the life of a family, but a serious mental condition. The child's maladaptive behavior—refusal to see one of the parents—is driven by the false belief that the alienated parent is a dangerous or unworthy person. We estimate that 1% of children and adolescents in the U.S. experience parental alienation. When the phenomenon is properly recognized, this condition is preventable and treatable in many instances. There have been scores of research studies and hundreds of scholarly articles, chapters, and books regarding parental alienation. Although we have located professional publications from 27 countries on six continents, we agree that research should continue regarding this important mental condition that affects hundreds of thousands of children and their families. The time has come for the concept of parental alienation to be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-V), and the International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Edition (ICD-11).
If allegations of sexual abuse of a child are made after parents separate, the challenges of resolving custody and visitation issues are greatly increased, with the abuse allegations overshadowing other considerations. These are high conflict cases, and settlement may be very difficult (or inappropriate) to arrange. The involvement of a number of agencies and professionals, with overlapping responsibilities and potentially conflicting opinions, may complicate the resolution of these cases. A significant proportion of allegations of child abuse made in the context of parental separation are true, but this is a context with a relatively high rate of unfounded allegations. While some cases of untrue allegations are due to fabrication, more commonly unfounded allegations are made in good faith. Preexisting distrust or hostility may result in misunderstandings and unfounded allegations, especially in cases where the children involved are young and the allegations are reported through a parent. Some cases of unfounded allegations may be the product of the emotional disturbance of the accusing parent. This paper discusses how parental separation affects the making of child sexual abuse allegations, with particular emphasis on how separation may contribute to unfounded allegations. Recent research is reviewed, and national data from Canada on allegations of abuse and neglect when parents have separated is presented. Legal issues that arise in these cases are discussed in the context of American and Canadian case law. The authors discuss factors that can help distinguish founded from unfounded cases. The paper concludes by offering some practical advice about the handling of this type of case by mental health professional, judges, and lawyers.
Data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being, a national probability study of children and families investigated for child maltreatment, were analyzed to answer the question: Do substantiated and unsubstantiated cases differ in rates of recidivism over 36 months? Recidivism was classified as (a) any re-reports, (b) substantiated re-reports and (c) subsequent foster care placements. Bivariate (survivor functions estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method) and multivariate (Cox regression modeling) analyses were conducted. The results revealed that risk of recidivism was similar regardless of substantiation status of the index investigation. We suggest that the substantiation label be removed from field use. Instead, we suggest that agencies record service needs in the families they serve, and also record whether or not the family meets criteria for referral to the family court. These would be far more practical and meaningful ways to measure child welfare services.
The frequency of false allegations of sexual abuse by children and adolescents is of significant legal and clinical importance. The rate of false allegations of sexual abuse is examined in a large sample of Child Protective Services (CPS) cases. The criteria used by CPS workers in judging the validity of allegations are considered, and the relationship between substantiation rates and attitudes about the trustworthiness of child reports of abuse is explored. Many professionals in the field of child sexual abuse are more skeptical of child and adolescent claims of sexual abuse than available research suggests is warranted.
This article describes the methodology of the first Canada-wide study of the incidence and characteristics of reported child abuse and neglect. Child welfare investigators from a random sample of 51 child welfare service areas completed a three-page survey form describing the results of 7,672 child maltreatment reports received during the months of October to December 1998. The study documented a 90% participation rate and a 95% item completion rate. An estimated 135,571 child maltreatment investigations were completed, a rate of 21.52 investigated children per 1,000 children in Canada in 1998. The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect is a rich database that will provide researchers with important contextual information on reported child maltreatment in Canada and a comprehensive source of information on factors associated with key service decisions made by child welfare investigators.
To identify characteristics of suspected child abuse victims that are associated with disclosure and nondisclosure during formal investigations.
The database included all suspected cases of physical and sexual abuse investigated in the state of Israel between 1998 and 2002. All investigative interviews were conducted using a single standardized protocol, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative Interview Protocol.
Overall, 65% of the 26,446 children made allegations when interviewed, but rates of disclosure were greater in the case of sexual (71%) than physical (61%) abuse. Children of all ages were less likely to disclose/allege abuse when a parent was the suspected perpetrator. Rates of disclosure/allegation increased as children grew older, with 50% of the 3- to 6-year-olds, 67% of the 7- to 10-year-olds, and 74% of the 11- to 14-year-olds disclosing abuse when questioned.
Although most interviews of suspected victims yielded allegations, such rates of disclosure varied systematically depending on the nature of the alleged offences, the relationship between alleged victims and suspected perpetrators, and the age of the suspected victims. The findings obtained in this large and unselected data set confirm patterns previously reported in smaller and quite selective samples, most of them obtained in the United States.
Controversy abounds regarding the process by which child sexual abuse victims disclose their experiences, particularly the extent to which and the reasons why some children, once having disclosed abuse, later recant their allegations. This study examined the prevalence and predictors of recantation among 2- to 17-year-old child sexual abuse victims.
Case files (n = 257) were randomly selected from all substantiated cases resulting in a dependency court filing in a large urban county between 1999 and 2000. Recantation (i.e., denial of abuse postdisclosure) was scored across formal and informal interviews. Cases were also coded for characteristics of the child, family, and abuse.
A 23.1% recantation rate was observed. Multivariate analyses supported a filial dependency model of recantation, whereby abuse victims who were more vulnerable to familial adult influences (i.e., younger children, those abused by a parent figure and who lacked support from the nonoffending caregiver) were more likely to recant. An alternative hypothesis, that recantations resulted from potential inclusion of cases involving false allegations, was not supported.
Results provide new insight into the process by which children reveal interpersonal trauma and have implications for debates concerning the credibility of child sexual abuse allegations and treatment in dependency samples.
Empirical research documents the risk that alienation allegations will prevail over child abuse allegations in custody cases despite evidence to the contrary (Silberg & Dallam, 2019 Silberg, J., & Dallam, S. (2019). Abusers gaining custody in family courts: A case series of overturned decisions. Journal of Child Custody, 16(2), 140–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/15379418.2019.1613204[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Milchman, 2017a Milchman, M. S. (2017a). Misogyny in NYS custody decisions with parental alienation versus child sexual abuse allegations. Journal of Child Custody, 14(4), 234–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/15379418.2017.1416723[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). This article analyzes oversimplified beliefs, implicit or explicit, about alienation that support such practice. Professionals demonstrate oversimplified beliefs that lend unjustified credibility to alienation claims when they assert or imply that they observed alienation directly rather than inferring it from behavioral observations; that their inferences are unambiguous in their meaning; and that the validity of their inferences is not compromised by difficult-to-detect risks to the child (Milchman et al., 2020 Milchman, M. S., Geffner, R., & Meier, J. S. (2020). Rhetoric replaces evidence and reasoning in parental alienation literature and advocacy: A critique. Family Court Review, 58(2), 340–361.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). They support these oversimplified beliefs when they claim that suggestibility research calls the validity of abuse interpretations of the behaviors they observed into question. The adversarial nature of the legal system in the U.S. and other countries encourages acceptance of oversimplified beliefs about alienation because blaming one parent for the child’s rejection of the other is consistent with legal concepts of personal responsibility and with legal remedies that directly control the behavior of the person deemed responsible (Meier, 2022 Meier, J. (2022). Questioning the scientific validity of parental alienation labels in abuse cases. In J. Mercer and M. Drew (Eds.), Challenging parental alienation: New directions for professionals and parents. Routledge. [Google Scholar]). A forthcoming companion article discusses empirical findings related to alienation claims that these oversimplified beliefs support.
As is the case in most fields, the research‐to‐practice gap in family law is wide. The field of implementation science has emerged to attenuate these research‐to‐practice gaps. The goal of this article is to provide an overview of implementation science because drawing from efforts to reduce research‐to‐practice gaps in health care and other related fields can help the family court ameliorate its own. The current article will present an overview of implementation science, focusing specifically on how family law stakeholders can use implementation science to accelerate the implementation of evidence‐based practices, such as universal screening for intimate partner violence and the provision of parent education to divorcing parents, in their court settings. We provide practical examples and recommendations for family law practitioners seeking to implement evidence‐based practices into their settings, and we also highlight opportunities for family law researchers to integrate implementation science into future research. There are research‐to‐practice gaps in family law. The field of implementation science seeks to identify methods to reduce these gaps. Family law practitioners can use implementation research to inform their implementation practice. There are many opportunities for family law researchers to harness implementation science to advance their own work.
In Norway, Child Protection Services (CPS) is responsible for investigating concerns about children at risk of being harmed by their parents’ conflicts. This study focuses on caseworkers’ experiences of investigating cases involving long-lasting custody disputes between parents, and presents the findings of qualitative research engaging 31 CPS caseworkers. CPS is required to investigate cases involving parental conflicts, and the findings show that caseworkers consider custody disputes to be harmful to children. Many of these families have had limited experience with public services before the marriage breakdown, and parents give contradicting stories about their situation to caseworkers. Consequently, caseworkers are pushed to position children as key informants, which violates the child participation principles set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. These children are, moreover, described as loyal to their parents, and often refuse to participate. The data analysis draws on Lipsky’s concept of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ to shed light on how caseworkers manage conflicting goals and demands when conducting investigations. The findings suggest that a system needs to be developed to provide caseworkers with resources and knowledge to help them investigate and to work with these complex family situations in a better way.
The concept of parental alienation (PA) has expanded in popular usage at the same time that it remains mired in controversy about its scientific integrity and its use as a legal strategy in response to an increasing range of issues in family court. In this paper we describe how competing advocacy movements (for mothers, fathers and children) in the family justice field have, over time, helped shape the shifting definitions and widening focal concerns of PA‐ from children who make false allegations of abuse, to those who resist or refuse contact with a parent, to parent relocation, and to the emotional abuse wrecked upon children who are victims of a manipulative parent. In search of common ground for a sound approach to using PA concepts, we argue that the Single Factor model of PA (asserting that an alienating preferred parent is primarily the source of the problem) is inadequate, overly simplistic and misleading. A Single Factor model rests on the fallacy that abuse or poor parenting on the part of either parent have been, or are able to be, ruled out as sufficient reason for the child's rejecting stance. By contrast, multi‐factor models of PA make more useful, valid, differentiated clinical predictions of children's rejection of a parent, informed by basic and applied research on children and families. However, multi‐factor models are complex and difficult to argue in court and to use in assessment and interventions. Suggestions are made for developing intervention‐focused prediction models that reduce the number of factors involved and are applicable across different types of interventions.
Background:
Allegations of child sexual abuse provide complex challenges to family court systems.
Objectives:
Despite being highly criticised in the academic research, this analysis examined whether and how the gendered concepts of parental alienation syndrome or parental alienation more broadly are still being used to rebut allegations of child sexual abuse in family court cases in Australia. Parental Alienation is broadly understood as the deliberate actions of one parent to disrupt and prevent children's ongoing relationships with their other parent, in this case through allegations of abuse.
Methods:
We examined 357 publicly available judgements of the Family Court of Australia between 2010 and 2015. Judgements were analysed qualitatively for key themes using N-VIVO software.
Results:
Five themes emerged in the data, including use of the concept of parental alienation, coaching, mothers as manipulative, mothers as mentally ill, and impact of the best interest of the child.
Conclusions:
Results indicate that judgements made in the Family Court of Australia are both similar and divergent from those made in other jurisdictions internationally. The complexity of responding to allegations of child sexual abuse for parents is discussed.
Families involved in high conflict child custody disputes pose unique challenges for child protection services. Little is known about the struggles faced by child protection workers when responding to complaints made by acrimonious ex-partners within the context of child custody disputes. This paper reports on an exploratory cross-sectional online survey of child protection service providers (n = 208) from five child protection agencies. Results show that the majority of workers expressed feeling higher levels of stress when dealing with families involved in child custody disputes, attributed to repeat allegations and counter allegations, the ongoing acrimony between the parents, pressure from the parents and legal professionals to take sides in the dispute and a lack of protocols to work with families involved in high conflict. The lack of specialized training to work with parents stuck in high conflict and the demands placed on workers, already struggling with large caseloads, contributed to workers feeling overwhelmed and ineffective when working with families entrenched in child custody disputes. Implications are discussed including the need for early identification of high conflict cases, specialized services to address the unique needs of families involved in child custody disputes and increased collaboration between child protection services and external service agencies.
Child maltreatment allegations often initially arise during informal conversations between
children and a non-offending parent. Whether and how initial parent-child discussions influence
the reliability of children’s subsequent forensic reports are critical contemporary questions regarding
child witness testimony. In the current paper, we systematically reviewed the extant
empirical literature regarding the effects of parent-child discussions on the accuracy of children’s
subsequent event reports. PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science databases were searched for
English-language, peer-reviewed papers that examined children’s (defined as participants 17-
years-old or younger) reports after they discussed a target event with a parent. The systematic
search yielded 23 eligible studies. To facilitate interpretation of the reviewed findings within the
autobiographical memory and child witness literatures, our review is organized according to
whether parents were naïve, knowledgeable, or misled prior to conversing with their children.
We also report whether the studies demonstrated facilitative, misinformation, or non-significant
effects of the parent-child discussion on the accuracy of children’s reports during a subsequent
memory interview with a researcher. Consistent with the broader child memory literature, facilitative
effects were often found among studies where children discussed the target event with a
knowledgeable parent. In addition, misinformation effects were frequently observed among
studies with misled parents. Limitations of the current studies, including generalizability of the
observations to experiences on which children testify, and recommendations for future research
and for forensic professionals are discussed.
This article analyzes 24 New York (NY) published child custody cases decided between 2001 and 2017 that contained parental alienation and child sexual allegations. It addresses whether there was a tendency toward gendered decisions and the evidence on which the decisions were based. It reveals that most decisions favored alienation allegations over child sexual abuse allegations and transferring custody from mothers communicating sexual abuse allegations in court to fathers defending against them by alleging parental alienation. On appeal, these family court decisions were overwhelmingly upheld. The analysis also shows that the decisions were based as often on implicit misogynistic cultural assumptions in the absence of allegation-specific evidence as they were on allegation-specific evidence. The article adds to the growing understanding of sources of bias by proposing four errors that support biased reasoning. It concludes with suggestions about how experts, attorneys, and judges can question themselves and others to reduce bias.
This study examined Family Court of Australia (FCA) judicial determinations in parenting disputes when allegations of child sexual abuse (CSA) are made by an interested party, usually the mother. For the study, 156 published judgments from 2013–2015 were examined to measure how often allegations of CSA are substantiated, suspected to be true, and disbelieved. The characteristics most common in substantiated versus unsubstantiated cases, evidence of abuse presented, and resulting parenting orders were assessed. Findings indicate that, against international comparisons, FCA judges substantiate cases very conservatively, with rates of substantiation much lower than in other studies. Allegations made by mothers against fathers were disproportionately unsubstantiated, as were those which did not fall under the Magellan case management system. Cases where the only evidence of CSA was a child’s disclosure and parent’s allegation were common in both substantiated and unsubstantiated cases, meaning that a lack of other evidence does not preclude a positive finding of risk of CSA by the FCA. Those cases also involving a protection order against the accused were more likely to be substantiated. Confirmation biases and a judicial tendency to err on the side of false negatives are discussed.
Child protection services (CPS) are increasingly becoming involved in high-conflict separations and the related custody and access proceedings. CPS involvement is often necessary to respond to abuse or neglect allegations or protect children from emotional harm. However, these crossover cases are very challenging for family justice professionals. This article reports on research on crossover cases in Ontario, including an analysis of reported court decisions, a survey of CPS staff, and interviews with family justice professionals. We suggest clearer CPS policies; improved understanding of respective professional roles; CPS summary reports for family courts; increased interagency coordination, communication, and training; and use of judicial case management.
Interviewing children who may have been sexually abused is a daunting task fraught with far-reaching consequences for the children, families, institutions, and professionals involved. With no room for error, forensic and clinical interviewers must navigate the complex and often contradictory evidence that informs their decision making. This book critically analyzes the research on assessing child sexual abuse. Noting that issues such as memory and suggestibility, questioning techniques, the use of media, and false allegations remain hotly contested, the chapters advise on applying available research to professional judgment while drawing also on best practice guidelines and conceptual, clinical, and consensus-based writings. The book covers the entire interview process, showing professionals how to structure, document, and follow up on children's responses in interviews; work with children who are very young, have special needs, or come from diverse backgrounds; use standardized tests and measures; formulate conclusions about sexual abuse; and defend those decisions in a courtroom or clinical setting.
This national study of child custody disputes within the context of child protection investigations confirms and reinforces the perception in the field that child custody disputes are more likely to reopen for investigations, include higher rates of malicious referrals and involve a higher proportion of children with emotional and functioning issues compared to non-custody-related investigations. Future research might consider the reasons for these higher rates so to improve the identification of these cases and to make more informed decisions about how best to respond to these families. The greatest contribution of this study is that it provides important new evidence to reinforce the need to prioritize child custody disputes within the context of child protection services given the unique challenges and opportunities for making well-informed case plan decisions.
This article alerts professionals to the emergence of oversimplified approaches to the complex problem of alleged child sexual abuse in the context of custody disputes. We argue that reliance on such methods is likely to result in misdiagnosis and failure to protect children who are both sexually abused and caught in custody battles. We specifically take issue with Green's (1986) recent formulation for distinguishing between true and false accusations of incest in child custody disputes because that formulation is based on an inadequate data base, biased sample, and unsupported conclusions. In addition, we discuss the limits of clinical impression, the difference between unfounded or unsubstantiated and false accusations of abuse, and the high prevalence of actual child sexual abuse in the setting of marital dissolution.
[review studies that] have examined different influences on autobiographical recall [in children], including age of the child, time since the experience, who is asking the child for recall, and what kinds of memory questions and cues are asked / [review] related research on autobiographical memory, both in adults and children, with an emphasis on issues relevant to children's ability to give credible testimony
focuses on the recall of unique, single-occurrence events under conditions where no misleading or suggestive information is introduced / discuss the amount and accuracy of recall / focus on the consistency of information recalled across time and social contexts / integrate the developmental findings on accuracy and consistency, and present a model of the development of autobiographical memory / discuss the implications of this model for issues surrounding children's testimony (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Examined professional practices and decision making procedures of Child Protective Services (CPS) professionals in determining validity of sexual abuse allegations. 175 sexual abuse cases of 20 CPS workers were analyzed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in which CPS workers provided information regarding their 10 most recent sexual abuse allegation cases. Results show that valid cases involved significantly older children, were more likely to involve intrusive types of abuse and children of minority races, and were less likely to involve a visitation or custody dispute. Characteristics of the child's disclosure served as the primary basis for substantiation decisions. Case workers were less certain of their decisions when allegations involved young children and adolescents and when allegations were made in the context of custody disputes. Anatomical dolls and drawings were rarely used, and alleged offenders were rarely interviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
When the authors of this article undertook a study into the way the Australian legal process managed child abuse allegations in custody and access disputes following partnership breakdown in de facto and legal marriages, they encountered what they came to think of as ‘the child abuse and divorce myth’. The myth centred around a belief that child abuse allegations made during or after partnership breakdown were weapons fashioned to gain advantage in the marital war. Therefore, they were not real; therefore, they should not be taken seriously. Despite little previous research, these views were strongly held by both families and professionals. The article examines the myth, believed to be an international phenomenon, and shows, in detail, how the study's findings do not support it. In fact, the findings from this unique study contradict the myth in its totality and in its specific aspects. Thus, it is argued that the myth should be abandoned and a new knowledge base for professional intervention that recognizes the reality of this problem be adopted instead. As a result of the study, a new specialized intervention program for children involved in residence and contact disputes where child abuse was alleged is being trialled in the Family Court of Australia. Hopefully, the introduction of further intervention programmes based on the reality of child abuse in these circumstances rather than on the myth will follow. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A forensic linguist who does extensive training on questioning child victim/witnesses covers children's understanding of adult questions, problems to look out for in interviewing children, and language-related reasons for inconsistencies in children's testimony. Has references, checklist and suggestions for interviewing/questioning of children, sentence-building principles for talking to children, a prototype child competency voir dire, and an extensive author and subject index. New edition revises and updates 1994 materials, expands upon first edition's list of principles for questioning children, and adds a chapter on cross cultural issues affecting questioning of children.
In this study of 120 divorced families referred for child custody evaluations and custody counseling, multiple allegations of child abuse, neglect, and family violence were raised in the majority of cases. About half of the alleged abuse was substantiated in some way with one fourth involving abuse perpetrated by both parents. Different kinds of allegations were raised against mothers compared with fathers. Implications of these findings for social policy, family court interventions, and the provision of coordinated services within the community are discussed.
Fathers' role in child abuse in the context of parental separation and divorce has been the subject of continuous stereotyping over the last several decades. This article examines the stereotypes projected against current research, particularly findings from a study of an experimental family court program designed for the better management of residence and contact disputes where child abuse allegations had been made. These findings are discussed in regard to similar studies internationally. While the two prevailing but opposing stereotypes of fathers' role in child abuse in this context were not confirmed by the research, aspects of the stereotypes regarding fathers' views and mothers' views of each other were supported. Problems associated with the paradoxical position of fathers as the most frequently alleged perpetrators of abuse, the most frequently substantiated perpetrators, and also the most frequently unsubstantiated perpetrators tend not to be fully addressed by the current court process for these disputes.
Using information from mail and telephone surveys and personal interviews with legal and mental health professionals who deal with child abuse cases, and empirical data from 12 domestic relations courts throughout the United States, the study concludes that only a small proportion of contested custody and visitation cases involve sexual abuse allegations. Records maintained by family court workers place the figure at less than 2%. A sample of 169 cases for which data were gathered from court counselors, family court, and CPS agency files also found that accusations were brought by mothers (67%) and fathers (28%) and third parties (11%). Fathers were accused in 51% of all cases, but allegations were also made against mothers, mothers' new partners, and extended family members. In the 129 cases for which a determination of the validity of the allegation was available, 50% were found to involve abuse, 33% were found to involve no abuse, and 17% resulted in an indeterminate ruling. Four factors were significantly associated with the perceived validity of the abuse report: age of the victim, frequency of the alleged abuse, prior abuse/neglect reports, and the amount of time elapsing between filing for divorce and the emergence of the allegation.
Child abuse in the context of legal and de facto marital breakdown has received little attention internationally. Many believe it does not exist in this context and regard it as just a "gambit in the divorce wars." Recently, however, family courts in a number of countries have become concerned over the management of child abuse allegations in custody and access cases, known more commonly now as residence and contact cases. This article presents a unique research study, which investigated how the Family Court of Australia dealt with such cases. The study, covering all forms of child abuse, sought to discover who were the families bringing these problems to family courts, what precisely the abuse was and how the courts dealt with it.
The study reviewed court records of some 200 families where child abuse allegations had been made in custody and access disputes in jurisdictions in two states, observed court proceedings and interviewed court and related services' staff.
The findings showed that these cases had become a core component of the court's workload without any public or professional awareness of this change, that the abuse was real, that it was severe and serious, and that the courts and child protection services did not provide appropriate services to the families.
A new specialized intervention system was developed based on the research and it is now being trialed and evaluated. The new intervention system contains features derived from the research findings that may be suitable internationally for implementation.
The 1998 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-98) is the first national study to document the rate of intentionally false allegations of abuse and neglect investigated by child welfare services in Canada. This paper provides a detailed summary of the characteristics associated with intentionally false reports of child abuse and neglect within the context of parental separation.
A multistage sampling design was used, first to select a representative sample of 51 child welfare service areas across Canada. Child maltreatment investigations conducted in the selected sites during the months of October-December 1998 were tracked, yielding a final sample of 7,672 child maltreatment investigations reported to child welfare authorities because of suspected child abuse or neglect.
Consistent with other national studies of reported child maltreatment, CIS-98 data indicate that more than one-third of maltreatment investigations are unsubstantiated, but only 4% of all cases are considered to be intentionally fabricated. Within the subsample of cases wherein a custody or access dispute has occurred, the rate of intentionally false allegations is higher: 12%. Results of this analysis show that neglect is the most common form of intentionally fabricated maltreatment, while anonymous reporters and noncustodial parents (usually fathers) most frequently make intentionally false reports. Of the intentionally false allegations of maltreatment tracked by the CIS-98, custodial parents (usually mothers) and children were least likely to fabricate reports of abuse or neglect.
While the CIS-98 documents that the rate of intentionally false allegations is relatively low, these results raise important clinical and legal issues, which require further consideration.
Children resisting contact & parental alienation: Context, challenges & recent Ontario Cases. Modern family: Symposium on child custody and access. Law Society of Upper Canada
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Psychological maltreatment guidelines
- American