The SAID Victim - What They Learn
                                ...continue...
The accusations of sexual child abuse in custody and visitation disputes has
been a focused issue since the early 1980's but the subject is either not 
re-
sented or is inadequately presented at child abuse conferences, in particular
at the levels where it should be.  Whether the subject is included depends on
who is speaking and who is sponsoring or co-sponsoring the conference (rape
crisis center, state agency, professional organization, safehouse, or other).
In their education the falsely accused literally learns a new vocabulary and
often the first phrase they hear is "behavioral indicators consistent with
children who have been sexually abused". The layman SAID Victim compares 
hese
behavioral indicators of sexual child abuse with symptoms exhibited by child-
ren of divorce or whose parents are divorcing, behaviors of children where
there is alcohol or other substance abuse in the home, homes where there is
domestic violence, and behaviors of children with the attention deficit dis-
order.
When SAID Victims consider the internal conflict among the "experts" in the
mental health community they come to the same conclusions and opinions that
any other non-professional would make on the sexual abuse indicators.
Prior to an accusation the falsely accused may have built a doll house or 
ade
doll clothes, now they find themselves reading about dolls with anatomical
parts and court rulings on the dolls for admissibility of evidence 
Kelly-Frye
test).  The original intent of the dolls was as a therapeutic tool to treat
young children who were sexually abused.  Now their use has been extended to
being a diagnostic tool to determine if sexual abuse did occur.   The contro-
versy continues on this use of the anatomical dolls.
The SAID Victim also reads about a sexual child abuse accommodation syndrome
and the opinions of others on this syndrome. The falsely accused also becomes
knowledgeable on other syndromes: the Parental Alienation Syndrome, Munchau-
sens' Syndrome by Proxy, statement reality analysis, and the SAID Syndrome.
SAID Victims later learn that many persons who investigate child abuse cases
and many who do evaluations for sexual abuse have never heard of the latter
four syndromes, and have no interest in learning about them.
The resource material indicates that new information is being provided by one
portion of the mental health community on the last four syndromes and their
relationships to the accusations issue.  The sexual child abuse accommodation
syndrome, frequently referenced in the past, is now being referenced less and
less. The author of this syndrome was not included in the February 1988 
meri-
can Bar Association publication, however this syndrome is still one of the
basic training tools of those employed at the level where the accusations are
first assessed and courtroom testimony on this subject is frequently part of
legal proceedings.
Excellent professional work involving research studies and statistics on true
sexual abuse of children have been reported for many years, however the re-
source material indicates only one in-depth study has been conducted on the
accusations issue.  Much can be said on determining statistics: who was con-
tacted in gathering information, who was left out and why, what was really
found, and what was finally reported.
Statistics can be used for many valid reasons, however in analyzing the re-
source material on sexual child abuse it appears statistics are often 
isused,
intermixed, and partially presented to either support points of view or to 
b-
tain local, state, or federal funds for programs. The same applies for 
tatis-
tics on domestic violence.
Statistics on the accusations of sexual child abuse in custody and visitation
disputes are inconclusive; they will remain so until further studies are con-
ducted with involvement from all segments of the mental health community, 
rom
individuals not experienced in sexual child abuse, from special interests
groups, and from SAID Victims.
Special interests groups & SAID Victims responded to the Abuse Allegation
Project of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, however none of
their input is seen in any papers that emerged from the project. Many discip-
lines become necessarily involved when an accusation of sexual child abuse is
made whether in the context of a custody dispute or otherwise.   All involved
are not only part of the total statistics of a social issue but of an educa-
tion process as well.
>>> End - The SAID Victim, Part 4 of 6: Reid Kimbrough---
---------------