1
CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS AND THE FAMILY COURT
MARIE HUME M.S.Sc.
Family Court Counsellor,
Adelaide Registry,
Family Court of Australia
Abstract
A study was conducted at the Adelaide Registry of the Family Court of Australia into 50 cases where child sexual abuse allegations had been made in the context of proceedings before the Family Court. The results of the investigations into the child sexual abuse allegations show that child sexual abuse was confirmed at a similar rate to such allegations made to the South Australian statutory child protection agency. More significantly when specific child sexual abuse allegations are made against fathers, then confirmation rates of child sexual abuse are substantially higher than those in the general population. The results of this study confirm the hypothesis of this thesis that child sexual abuse allegations in the context of Family Court proceedings are not more likely to be false than those in other contexts.
This paper is based on research conducted by the author which examines the question of whether or not child sexual abuse allegations made in the context of the separating family and Family Court proceedings are more likely to be false than such allegations made in other contexts.
There is much controversial debate in the academic and theoretical literature regarding the issue of child sexual abuse allegations made in the context of divorce. On the one hand, it is argued that child sexual abuse allegations are easily made by women in order to gain an advantage in custody and access disputes, and can be made out of vindictiveness and bitterness surrounding the divorce. The assertion is made, that because men are increasingly applying for custody and access (at least in the United States), women are raising allegations of child sexual abuse in order to prevent men from having contact with their children (Benedek et al, 1985; Green, 1986; Yates et al, 1988; Wakefield et al, 1991).
An alternative argument is that child sexual abuse allegations made in this arena are reflective of the extent of child sexual abuse in society, and in fact an argument has been made that not only is intrafamilial abuse more likely to be revealed following separation and divorce, but that divorce may be a risk factor for sexual abuse of children (Thoennes et al, 1988; Faller, 1991; Salter, 1988).
The Research
A study was conducted at the Adelaide Registry of the Family Court of Australia into 50 cases where child sexual abuse allegations had been made in the context of proceedings before the Family Court.
There were a total of 105 children in the 50 cases studied, 43% (n=45) males and 57% (n=60) females. Of these 105 children, 66.7% (n=70) children were alleged to have been sexually abused. Of those 70 children there were 30% (n=21) males and 70% (n=49) females
The most frequent age group recorded was in the 0-5 years range (n=33; 47%), with almost equal numbers in the 6-9 years age group (n=19; 27%) and 10-17 years age group (n=18; 26%)
The allegations identified in the 50 cases were divided into 3 categories:
(1)The first category involved allegations of specific sexual abuse (n=36; 72% of cases). In each of these cases, a person was making a specific allegation that the child had been sexually abused.
(2)The second category involved allegations that a child was at risk of abuse (n=11; 22% of cases).
(3)The third category involved allegations of inappropriate behaviour indicating possible sexual abuse (n=3; 6% of cases).
The majority of allegations were made against fathers (n=32; 64%). In 14% (n=7) of cases the mother’s partner was the alleged abuser. Mother was alleged to have sexually abused the children in 2% (n=1) of cases. The other alleged abusers consisted of siblings (n=2; 4%), other family members (n=4; 8%), non-family members (n=2; 4%) and cases where the alleged abuser was not identified (n=2; 4%)
Table 1 indicates that child sexual abuse was confirmed in 42% (n=21) of cases; whilst there was an inconclusive outcome in 16% (n=8) of cases and no abuse was recorded in 8% (n=4) of cases.
Table 1: Outcome of Investigations into Child Sexual Abuse Allegations
Outcome of Investigations / Frequency / PercentConfirmed child sexual abuse / 21 / 42%
Inconclusive / 8 / 16%
No abuse / 4 / 8%
No Investigation / 17 / 34%
Total / 50 / 100%
In 72% (n=36) of cases the allegation involved specific sexual abuse, rather than the risk of abuse or inappropriate behaviour indicating that child sexual abuse may have occurred. Table 2 indicates the results of the investigations into the specific allegations of sexual abuse.
Table 2: Outcome of investigations where specific sexual abuse allegations are made
Outcome of Investigations / Frequency / PercentChild sexual abuse confirmed / 20 / 55.6%
Inconclusive outcome / 5 / 13.9%
No Abuse / 4 / 11.1%
No Investigation / 7 / 19.4%
Total / 36 / 100%
Child sexual abuse was confirmed in 55.6% (n=20) of cases where specific sexual abuse allegations were made, as compared to 42% (n=21) of the total number of cases where there was a confirmation of sexual abuse. It is clear from these results that there is a distinct relationship between the probability of confirmation and the nature of the allegation. That is, the more specific the allegation of sexual abuse, the greater the possibility of an investigation and the greater the probability of confirmation of sexual abuse.
Results of investigations into child sexual abuse allegations, when the alleged abuser is the father
Table 3 indicates the results of the investigations into child sexual abuse allegations when the alleged abuser is the father of the alleged victims.
Table 3: Results of investigation, when the alleged abuser is the father
Outcome of Investigation / Number / PercentConfirmed Sexual Abuse / 19 / 59.4%
Inconclusive outcome / 4 / 12.5%
No Abuse / 2 / 6.2%
No Investigation / 7 / 21.9%
Total / 32 / 100%
These figures reflect that when the alleged abuser is the father then the sexual abuse is confirmed at a higher rate than those in the study generally (n= 19; 59.4% as compared to n= 21; 42%).
Results of investigations into child sexual abuse allegations where the alleged abuser was the father and there was a specific allegation of abuse.
In 54% (n=27) of cases there was a specific allegation of sexual abuse and the alleged abuser was the father. The results of the investigations into the sexual abuse allegation show that 70.4% (n=19) of these cases contained an assessment of confirmed sexual abuse; 7.4% (n=2) of these cases were inconclusive in their findings; a further 7.4% (n=2) of cases where no abuse was indicated and there was no investigation in 14.8% (n=4) of cases (See table 4).
Table 4: Outcomes of investigations where the alleged abuser is the father and there are specific allegations of sexual abuse.
Outcome of Investigation / Number / PercentConfirmed Sexual Abuse / 19 / 70.4%
Inconclusive outcome / 2 / 7.4%
No Abuse / 2 / 7.4%
No Investigation / 4 / 14.8%
Total / 27 / 100%
What arises from these figures is that where the allegation was specific and the alleged abuser was the father, confirmation rates of sexual abuse were substantially higher than in the total number of cases of confirmed sexual abuse in the study (n= 19; 70.4% as compared to n= 21; 42%).
Outcomes of investigations by Family and Community Services into child sexual abuse allegations (1993/94).
The following data is provided in order to compare the outcomes of the investigations into the sexual abuse allegations in this study with outcomes of all investigations into child sexual abuse notifications conducted by the Department for Family and Community Services in the period 1993/94. (The Department for Family and Community Services were the mandated State child welfare authorities). The Annual Report of the South Australian Department for Family and Community Services for 1993 - 94 reports 1579 assessments of sexual abuse allegations conducted in that period. An analysis of these assessments demonstrated that:
a total of
- 37.3% were assessed as being valid complaints of child sexual abuse;
- a further 18.6% were assessed as being uncertain;
- 20.4% were concluded as no abuse;
- no investigation was conducted in 5.3%;
- 6.9% had only a partial investigation;
- the remaining 11.5% were not completed, or not located.
Confirmation rates of child sexual abuse allegations in this study compared to confirmation rates of Family and Community Services (1993/4).
Figures from Family and Community Services were compared with all cases in this study - cases where the alleged abuser is the father, cases where there are direct allegations of sexual abuse and cases where there are direct allegations made against fathers.
The confirmation rate of sexual abuse in the 50 cases in this study was 42% compared to confirmation rates of 37.3% of notifications made to Family and Community Services during 1993/94. Confirmation rates of child sexual abuse within these cases involved in Family Court proceedings are similar to those made to Family and Community Services.
Where allegations of specific sexual abuse are made in this study (n=36 cases; 55.6%) the confirmation rates are substantially higher than the confirmation rates of 37.3% of notifications made to Family and Community Services during 1993/94.
When the alleged abuser is the father, child sexual abuse is confirmed in 59.4% (n=19) of cases in this study. More significantly, when the alleged abuser is the father and there are specific allegations of abuse, sexual abuse is confirmed in 70.4% (n=19) of these cases. This figure is substantially higher than the rate of confirmation of sexual abuse (37.3%) in figures from Family and Community Services.
The rates of inconclusive findings in this study were 16% (n=8) and are comparable to Family and Community Services figures of 18.6%. No abuse was assessed to have occurred in 8% (n=4) of cases in this study. This figure is substantially lower than the figure of 20.4% of investigations in the data from Family and Community Services and suggests that child sexual abuse allegations made in divorce and custody/access hearings are less likely to result in a finding of ‘no abuse’.
Analysis of the results of the investigations into the child sexual abuse allegations in the 50 cases in this study when compared to the results of investigations carried out by the State welfare agency (Family and Community Services, 1993/94) provides little reason to indicate false accusations of sexual abuse in the context of custody and access disputes. This is particularly true when specific allegations of sexual abuse are made against fathers in this study.
Family Court Outcomes
Of the total of 50 cases in this study, there were 20% (n=10) of cases where the applications to Court were withdrawn, or there was no further court action recorded on the Court file. There was also 1 case that had not finalised at the time of the compiling of these results. 34% (n=17) of cases resulted in the alleged abuser having no access or supervised access to the child(ren). In 44% (n=22) of cases, there was a normal custody/access regime (as shown in table 5).
In those cases where the alleged abuser was the father (64%; n=32), the outcome in 23 cases was either no access or supervised access, or a withdrawal of Court action by the alleged abuser; in 1 case there was no further action on the Court file; in the remaining 8 cases there was a normal custody/access regime.
Of the 60% (n=30) of cases where the parties chose not to continue to litigate the issue through the Family Court and therefore not to rely on a legal finding of the issue of abuse or custody/access decisions, 11 agreed to no access or supervised access to the alleged abuser. In 10 of these cases the father was the alleged abuser. In 19 cases the parents consented to a normal custody/access regime and in 6 of these cases the father was the alleged abuser. These figures indicate that the parties are more likely to consent to a normal custody and access regime when the alleged abuser is not the father.
There were 18% (n=9) of the 50 cases that proceeded to a fully defended hearing in the Family Court. It is noteworthy that of those cases which did proceed to a full Court hearing, in 7 of the 9 cases the sexual abuse was confirmed by the investigative body. However, in 3 of these cases the sexual abuse allegation was not litigated and the parties relied on other evidence to pursue their case. In only 2 cases was there doubt expressed in Court judgements about the motivation of the person making the allegation. In 1 case this was the mother against the father with medical evidence indicating abuse had occurred, but the alleged abuser was unable to be identified, and in the other case it was father making the allegation against mother’s partner.
Discussion
Information on the child sexual abuse allegations
The results of the investigations into the child sexual abuse allegations in the 50 cases in this study show that the confirmation rate of child sexual abuse allegations is 42%. When this is compared with the confirmation rate of sexual abuse allegations made to the Department of Family and Community Services for the years 1993-94 (37.5%) it is suggested that the rates of confirmations in this study are similar to those in the general population.
More specifically, when fathers are the alleged sexual abusers of children, confirmation rate of sexual abuse rises to 59.4% , that is comparable to studies in the United States where Thoennes et al (1988) found a confirmation rate of 50%. When the allegations of sexual abuse against fathers involve specific allegations of sexual abuse then the figure rises even higher, with confirmation rates being 70.4%. This figure is substantially higher than the confirmation rates reported to the Department of Family and Community Services (1993-94) of 37.5% and are strongly supportive of the original hypothesis of this research.
The research data therefore is supportive of similar studies conducted in the United States (Thoennes et al, 1988; Faller, 1990) which shows that child sexual abuse allegations made in the context of separation and divorce are not significantly more likely to be false than sexual abuse allegations made in other contexts.
Family Court Outcomes
There were 78% of cases that reached a final outcome in the Court. 34% of the 50 cases resulted in the alleged abuser having no access or supervised access to the child(ren). In 44% of the 50 cases there was a normal custody/access regime. Thus, in the majority of cases the child sexual abuse allegation did not appear to interfere with normal contact between both parents and their children.
However, in those cases where the alleged abuser was the father (64%) the outcome in 71.8% of cases was either no access or supervised access, or a withdrawal of Court action by the alleged abuser. These Family Court outcomes suggest that when an allegation of sexual abuse is made against a father that in the majority of cases he will not be likely to maintain unsupervised contact with the alleged victim. An outcome of no access or supervised access to fathers when they are the alleged abusers is in fact higher than the number of confirmed cases of child sexual abuse when fathers are the alleged abusers in this study. This could support the argument that it is easy for child sexual abuse allegations to be presented at Family Court without the proper investigation and therefore false allegations can be made and are more likely to disadvantage fathers (Byrne, 1991; Schudson, 1992). However, it is the position of this paper, as supported by the data, that these figures suggests that the Family Court outcomes in these 50 cases reflect a position of protection of children from the possible harm of child sexual abuse.
One of the most interesting aspects of the data from this research is the number of cases which chose not to continue to litigate the dispute in the Family Court but reached an agreement despite an allegation of sexual abuse having been made. There appear to be a high number of cases where the parties agreed to a consent order in the Court, that is 60%.
The outcomes of the consent orders made in the 50 cases in this study show that the majority consented to a normal custody/access regime (63.3%). However, when fathers were the alleged abusers in consent orders made, the parties were more likely to agree to no access or supervised access (56%). These figures indicate that the parties are more likely to consent to unsupervised contact between the alleged abuser and victim when the alleged abuser is not the father. This data is also supported by the higher rate of confirmation of abuse when the alleged abuser is the father.
When sexual abuse was confirmed by the State welfare authorities parties were predictably more likely to consent to no access or supervised access. When there was no investigation on the Court file or there was an inconclusive finding of abuse, whilst the majority (55.5%) consented to contact between the alleged victim and abuser, there were still a substantial percentage (54.5%) who agreed to no access or supervised access.
Therefore, the sexual abuse allegation appears to have had some impact on the outcome, even when the outcome is an agreement between the parties. Possible explanations are that the alleged abuser may not have been willing for there to be further investigation into the child sexual abuse allegation by the Family Court and would rather forego unsupervised contact with the child(ren); or fathers are led to believe that they will not be given a fair hearing in the Court, given the serious nature of a sexual abuse allegation and withdraw from the proceedings.
When mother’s partner was the alleged abuser, the allegation did not appear to have had an impact on the mother’s contact with the child (ren) in that she continued to have unsupervised contact in all but 1 case. However, it did appear to affect the custody outcome, when compared to the overall figures that show that mothers gain custody in the majority of cases. When there were allegations of sexual abuse made against mother’s partner, in 60% of cases she lost custody and in 20% of cases agreed to a split custody arrangement. What is not clear from the material on the Court file is whether mother ceased her relationship with the alleged abuser.