USA wrote:

> This article deliberately skirts the real issue of who makes false
> accusations of child abuse the most often.  That of course, is a
> spiteful and vindictive mother looking to get full custody of the
> children as well as most of the financial assets of the marriage.  The
> added bonus may be getting the father sent to jail, ruining his
> reputation, costing him his job and worst of all legally denying him
> all contact with his children.
>
> This article plays around with foster care false accusations (which
> may indeed exist to some degree) but if so, they happen far less often
> than in divorce cases.  The article even plays at blaming the children
> who make false accusations even as they are called "victims" but it
> does not once lean on, much less overtly lay blame upon the nasty
> bitches who are most often behind false accusations along with their
> filthy attorneys who often coach them to do so. I suspect the author
> is a feminist.

Sadly, although we are familiar with the bias
(conveniently not mentioning that it is females
who do this) it is not of that much importance
here because male accusations hardly exist.

Nor is it merely accusations of sexual abuse; I
had my life put through the ringer without there
being any children involved at all.

It has been estimated that 80% of accusations
are false and 40% are thought to be quite
malicious. These are the expessed views of the
professionals involved.

Dustbin.

> On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 08:42:39 GMT, "MCP"

> wrote:
>
>
>>http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive/m-n/morse/2005/morse030205.htm
>>
>>March 2, 2005
>>by Jennifer Roback Morse, Ph.D.
>>
>>It is the "nuclear option" in divorce and custody cases.
It is the nightmare
>>scenario for foster parents. It can be the end of a teaching or child-care
>>career. What is it? It is a false allegation of child abuse. This is not
>>only a particularly vicious form of fraud; it is one of the few lies that
>>the legal system makes no effort to punish. There is, for all practical
>>purposes, no penalty for making a false accusation of child abuse.
>>
>>Many different characters can have a motive for making a false allegation.
>>Sometimes a birth parent will accuse the foster parents of harming the
>>child. The birth parents may believe that they can improve their chances of
>>reunifying with their child by discrediting the foster parents. Or the birth
>>parents may simply be vindictive.
>>
>>Sometimes the foster children themselves invent stories, for reasons of
>>their own. The kids might want to get out of a foster home, because the
>>rules are too tough, or they don't like the food. Inventing a story of
>>sexual molestation or physical abuse can be a foster child's tactic for
>>getting himself or herself thrown out of a foster home. Kids who have been
>>in The System for a while compare notes with one another about how to get
>>themselves thrown out of a foster home. False allegations are so common,
>>that our local foster parent association has a policy of assisting families
>>through their first experience of being investigated.
>>
>>But of course, it isn't just people already in the child welfare system who
>>have motives for making false allegations. Some parents in custody disputes
>>make accusations against their spouses as a tactic for keeping the parent
>>out of the child's life. Others have no practical reason for inventing a
>>charge: they do it simply for spite. One study, however, found that some 70%
>>of child abuse charges in custody cases, proved to be unfounded.
>>
>>Now a little thought will bring to mind the cost to the victims of a false
>>allegation. The divorced father loses his reputation, his livelihood and all
>>contact with his children. The foster parents go through a long
>>investigative procedure, which may cost them money and will certainly cost
>>them sleep. But let's not dwell on the obvious costs to the obvious victims.
>>There are many hidden costs of indiscriminate charges of child abuse.
>>
>>The prospect of having a false allegation made against you, is surely
>>something that dissuades good people from becoming foster parents in the
>>first place. The more scrupulous the person is, the more the prospect of
>>being humiliated by an investigation is likely to bother them. We don't know
>>how many perfectly decent potential foster parents have been frightened
>>away. The cost of aggressively prosecuting each and every child abuse claim,
>>no matter how far fetched, is that the system has trouble attracting and
>>retaining foster parents. This is costly for all the kids who come through
>>the foster care system.
>>
>>There are costs for the particular kids who make false claims. A child with
>>a history of making up stories about authority figures really can not be in
>>a foster home, since, most families are reluctant to take a child with this
>>kind of history. The social workers could place such a child with an
>>unsuspecting foster family, but they really shouldn't. So if the social
>>workers play it straight, the kid will have trouble getting a home. That
>>child is no longer "family material." He or she will end
up in a group home,
>>because he or she poses a serious risk to a family.
>>
>>The worst consequence of undetected false claims is that children who get
>>away with lying become more and more disturbed. Nancy Thomas, therapeutic
>>foster mom, has spent her adult life helping seriously disturbed children.
>>In her book, Dandilion on my pillow, butcher knife underneath, she reports
>>on the sad consequences of serial lying. One child had come into foster care
>>after accusing his mother of subjecting him to a child prostitution ring.
>>His mother and another adult went to prison. Another accused person
>>committed suicide. His social worker lost her license. But as the story
>>unfolded, Nancy found out that there was no child prostitution ring: the
>>child's father had coached the child to make these charges, as a way of
>>hurting his ex-wife. Of all Nancy's troubled children, this was the one who
>>never really recovered.
>>
>>Think about it from the perspective of a mildly troubled child:
"I got my
>>stepdad sent to jail. I broke up my mom's second marriage. I got my foster
>>parents' license taken away." Getting an adult in trouble empowers the
>>child, and they become drunk on that power. Every time they get away with a
>>lie, they get more disturbed and more difficult to treat. That is the
>>greatest hidden cost of allowing false allegations to go undetected and
>>unpunished.
>>
>>If you or I pulled the fire alarm because we liked to see all the excitement
>>of the fire trucks, we'd be in big trouble. The public safety officers in
>>this country take a dim view of people who harm the public good in this way.
>>False or frivolous charges of child abuse play the same kind of havoc with
>>the family court system, and in the lives of many innocent people. At the
>>very least, society needs to impose some penalty for inflicting those kinds
>>of costs on others. The first step is recognizing the problem. People get
>>away with making false allegations every day. Innocent people suffer from
>>being falsely accused. It is high time we notice.
>>
>>Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse
>
>


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