Subject: On False Sexual Abuse Allegations Made During Divorce

From: [email-masked] (aaron.l.hoffmeyer)
Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 08:22:14 GMT

From "Personality Characteristics of Parents Making False Accusations of
Sexual Abuse In Divorce & Custody Disputes"

Symposium on False Accusations of Sexual Abuse in Divorce and Custody
Disputes at the 98th Annual Convention of the American Psychological
Association, Boston, Massachusetts

August 14, 1990

By Drs. Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager

page 7.

Table 3

Diagnoses of Falsely Accusing Parents, Falsely Accused Parents and
Custody Only (Control group) Parents

[Based on a study of 181 divorce cases involving allegations of abuse,
and in some cases the doctors, HW and RU, had access to one person or
one person's information, and comparing that data to a control group of
divorcing parents battling for custody who did NOT make allegations of
abuse....]

     				Diagnosis
Group       	No Diagnosis		Personality		Other
                 Warranted		 Disorder	      Diagnoses
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accusing          17  (24%)		53  (74%)	       2  (3%)
N = 72
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accused           72  (70%)             27  (26%)	       4  (4%)
N = 103
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Custody           44  (66%)             17  (25%)              6  (9%)
N = 67

Three-fourths of the accusing parents were given diagnoses of
personality disorder while only one-fourth were seen as normal.  In
comparison, only one-fourth of the individuals in the accused group and
the custody control group had personality disorders and most (70% and
66%) were seen as normal.

The most frequent personality disorder diagnosis for all three groups
was mixed or unspecified.  This is a dagnosis given when a person does
not meet the criteria for one specific personality disorder.  For the
accusing parents, 24 of the 53 with personality disorders were given
this diagnosis.  Within the unspecified personality disorder category,
11 of the 24 persons had histrionic personality features.  The other
personality disorders for the accusing parents were histrionic (7),
dependent (6), borderline (5), passive-aggressive (5), paranoid (5), and
explosive (1).

For the custody only (control) parents, 8 of the 17 with personality
disorders were daignosed as unspecified.  The remaining 9 were
distributed fairly evenly among other personality disorders.

For the falsely accused parents, 11 of the 27 with personality disorders
were daignosed as unspecified.  The others were passive-dependent (7),
passive-aggressive (4), anti-social (2), schizoid (1), compulsive (1),
and narcissistic (1).

...

page 12

Discussion

Falsely accusing parents were much more likely to have a personality
disorder, such as histrionic, borderline, passive-aggressive, paranoid
or unspecified.  Only one-fourth were seen as have no psychopathology.
In comparison, most of the individuals in the custody control group and
the accused group were assessed as normal.  Of the personality disorders
in the falsely accusing parents. roughly one-third were histrionic
personality of unspecified personality disorder with histrionic
features.

[They go on and discuss how the MMPI is NOT a good tool for detecting
personality disorders in these cases, because the accusing parents' scores
reflect such a high degree of defensiveness as to invalidate the scores.
Many psychologists use the MMPIs to detect who is lying and who has the
problems in these cases, but the unsually high degree of defensive
responses "may well reflect something more than a defensive response
set.  The personality patterns if many of these people include poor
insight, rigidity, and a tendendy to deny shortcomings."]

...

page 13

Could the stress of becoming convinced that one's child was being
sexually abused in the face of disbelief by the justice system have
caused the accusing parents to develop a personality disorder?  This is
unlikely for several reasons.

First, in about one-fourth of the cases, the psychological information
was collected before the abuse allegations were made.  There were no
differences in the proportion of psycholpathology in these cases
compared to the ones where the information was obtained afterwards.

Second, in almost all the cases, at the point at which the information
was gathered the allegations were believed and supported.  The accused
parent's visitation was terminated or greatly restricted and he was
often facing criminal charges.

Third, whatever stresses are created by believing one's child is being
sexually abused are matched by the stress of being *falsely* accused of
child sexual abuse (Schultz, 1989; Underwager, Clauss, & Wakefield,
1990).  The information we have from the accused parents is that they
often suffered tremendous anxiety and depression as a result of being
falsely accused.

Fourth, the personality disorder diagnosis indicates a stable,
long-lasting and pervasive personality pattern which is unlikely to
develop as a result of a stressful situation.  Although personality
disorders are exacerbated by stress, they are not created by a stressful
incident.

...

Several of the falsely accusing persons' level of dysfunction was
extremely serious, sometimes to the point of losing contact with
reality.  Some believed they had rare spiritual powers and/or delusions
concerning religion.  One woman planned on traveling to Rome to marry
the Pope; the records of another stated that she had gone to
Switzerland to marry Christ.  One woman, a psychotherapist, believed
that she had exceptional empathic powers that allowed her to sense who
among her adult clients had been sexually abused as children.  Several
were described as being highly unstable and unpredictable, displaying
hysterical and bizarre behaviors, and sometimes failing to distinguish
between fact and fantasy.  The women with histrionic personality
diagnoses were described as displaying manipulative, flamboyant,
coquettish, or exhibitionistic behavior and being preoccupied with
appearance and attractiveness, along with having a tendency to distort
events.

...

page 14

The falsely accusing parents were sometimes so obsessed with anger
towards their stranged spouse that this became a major focus in their
lives.  Such persons were often described by the evaluators as being
oppositional, hostile, negative, and resistant in the evaluation and
concern was expressed that the anger towards the former spouse
supersedes the needs of the child.  One woman made frequent calls to
her husband's job, alleging that he was a pervert and a thief and
should be fired.  She also tried to run down her husband's attorney
with her car.  Another called our office to tell us that her husband
was a deadbeat and would not pay his bill with us.  She also accused
him of being involved in the Scott County sex ring, an accusation that
was simply impossible as the man was out of the country at the time.

...

Several women remained obsessed with the suspicion that their former
spouse was sexually abusing the child, even after the case was
dismissed or judged to be false.  Some took their young child for
multiple physical and psychological examinations and made repeated
accusations of abuse to child protection agencies.  A few regularly
examined the genitals of the child following visits.  Some had been
questioning the children about possible sexual abuse for years.  A few,
when the case was not substantiated, moved to another county and
started the accusations all over, continuing this pattern until a child
protection worker was found who substantiated the accusation.  One
woman arranged for a television station to interview her so she could
publicly accuse her husband of sexually abusing their child.  This
included a videotape of the child.  Two disappeared with their children
after the court ruled that there was no abuse and ordered visitation
with the father to be resumed.

[They go on and describe the four men in their sample group making false
allegations.  All four had personality disorders.  One had gone through
seven attorneys.  One had accused the teenage son of his former wife's
roommate of sexual abuse and his present wife of abusing their new
baby.]

...

But the parent making the accusations does not have to be histrionic,
paranoid or vindictive.  Even normal individuals, in the midst of an
angry dispute over custody, may be ready to believe their spouses has
sexually abused their children.  Some parents may be influenced by the
campaigns about child abuse to make false accusations based on
misperceptions and false assumptions.  They may then take their child
to a mental health professional who interviews the child with
anatomical dolls and assures them that the abuse is real.  They may be
told that a physical examination "proves" sexual abuse.  A social
worker may threaten to place their child in foster care if they don't
believe that the abuse really happened.  And once an accusation is
made, it becomes extremely difficult to retract, even when new evidence
is presented.

...

What about the men (and women) who were falsely accused of sexually
abusing their children?  These falsely accused parents appear to be
relatively normal persons.  Ross and Blush (1990) describe the men they
have seen as unremarkable.  They may be nurturing and passive and
unlikely to be socially aggressive or competitive.  Those with
personality disorders are likely to be diagnosed as passive-dependent
or passive-aggressive.  [Their test scores reflected passivity and a
lack of insight into their personal relationships.]  Some of these men,
by virtue of the sensitivity and caring, may be vulnerable to
involvement with needy women.  Once involved, they may behave somewhat
apssively as they continue to hope that all will work out.

...

page 17

Conclusions

The increasing frequency of accusations of sexual abuse in contested
divorce and custody cases means that professionals must be very
cautious.  It is necessary to remain open and objective, fuard against
a presumption of guilt, and resist aligning oneself with the reporting
parent's agenda.  Unfortunately, some professionals are ready to come
to the premature closure with minimal information and leap to the
conviction that a child has been abused.  Klajner-Diamond, Wehrspann
and Steinhauer (1987) say one of the four factors of adult influence
suggesting a false accusation is a professional committed prematurely
to the truth of the allegation.  Blush and Ross (1990) observe that
false cases are characterized by a loss of control early on when
professionals decide that abuse is real before doing careful
investigation.

If a mistake is made and a false accusation is judged to be true, two
people are hurt -- the child and the accused.  The nonabused child has
been subjected to a process of interrogation and often to sex abuse
therapy that is confusing and potentially iatrogenic.  The falsely
accused adult is likely to suffer emotional and physical breakdown,
family breakdown and financial hardship (Schultz, 1989).  His
relationship with his child may be irretrievably damaged.

...

The personality characteristics of the parties involved when
accusations of sexual abuse surface in a bitter divorce and custody
battle should be considered in evaluating the allegations.  In the
absence of corroborating evidence, when the parent making the
accusation is disturbed and the accused is psychologically normal, a
false accusation should be considered.

Aaron L. Hoffmeyer
[email-masked]