How children are suffering harm by those with a duty to protect them.

By Charles Pragnell

The abuse of children is a horrendous and unacceptable crime in any society and it is correct that when such acts occur, immediate protection is available for the children and appropriate action is taken in regard to the offenders.

However, what is also unacceptable is the high level of false accusation of child abuse which also has abusive effects on children and the families who are falsely accused.

According to statistical evidence in 1992 and 1997, over two-thirds of reports of child abuse in the U.K. have NO substantive basis i.e. False and wrongful accusations. [Dept of Health Statistics]. Similar proportions of false accusations were evident during the same time period in the United States of America and in Australia. There is evidence that false accusations of child abuse are occurring for mistaken, mischievous, and malicious reasons.

But the situation is much worse than first appears as a substantial proportion of those, where it is claimed that there is a substantive basis to the accusations, counterclaim that they have also been falsely accused but the investigations have been improperly conducted and mismanaged. There is research to support these claims in Messages From Research - DOH 1996 and in the study by Prosser and Lewis - Child Abuse Investigations (1992 and 1995).

American researchers, Wakefield and Underwager reported in 1995 that,

In the last thirty years there have been over thirty formal Inquiries in the U.K. into the deaths of children whilst under the care and/or supervision of social workers e.g. Maria Colwell, Jasmine Beckford, Tyra Henry, Kimberley Carlisle, etc., and the outcomes of these Inquiries indicate that social workers were not carrying out child abuse investigations correctly. Whereas in most of these individual cases the social workers failed to intervene effectively, in other cases their intervention has been overt and unnecessary. E.g. Cleveland, The Orkneys, Rochdale, Nottingham etc.

In these latter cases, unproven medical theories e,g, Anal Dilatation Tests, Repressed Memory Syndrome, and unproven social work theories e.g. Satanic Ritual Abuse, resulted in harmful action by social workers intervening unnecessarily and wrongly in the lives of children and their families.

In such circumstances some social workers claim, "Damned if we do, and damned if we don't", but such a cliché'd response has no validity when child protection investigations are conducted incompetently or negligently.

The current unproven medical theory which is resulting in many hundreds of families being wrongly accused of child abuse is Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy [MSBP], which is causing immense disruption, distress, and harm to children throughout the U.K. In these cases, physicians and social workers allege that parents (usually mothers) have fabricated or induced an illness in their child, yet on examination of such cases it can be found that the children have and are suffering serious illnesses. Groups which seem to have been particularly targeted for such accusations are families with children with Autism, Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder [ADHD] or Cystic Fibrosis. In other cases children have suffered adverse reactions to vaccines, or from medically prescribed drugs which have not been clinically tested on children by manufacturers prior to widespread distribution, or from birth injuries.

Prosser's research indicated that the major faults in child protection investigations are :-

• The social workers perceived that abuse had occurred and the accused as guilty from the beginning of the investigation;
• Thereafter the investigators only sought confirmatory evidence of their assumptions and disregarded evidence which would have cast doubt on the allegations;
• Poor recording of evidence;
• Inappropriate interpretations by investigators of statements or actions;
• Idiosyncratic behaviour and interpretation of policies by investigators;
• Investigators focusing on a single piece of evidence and ignoring contrasting sets of evidence;
• Confusion over what constitutes a medical indicator of abuse and a "natural" condition [apparent in MSBP cases];
• High status doctors (consultant) having substantial influence over other investigators. [apparent in MSBP cases];
• Experts deviating from their areas of expertise [apparent in MSBP cases

Prosser identified three major areas of significant concern -

1. "The imbalance of power within the investigating agencies;
2. The abandonment of professional codes of conduct and practice by some investigators; and
3. The failure of the system to adequately acknowledge or compensate the wrongly accused family for the trauma and losses suffered. This latter point is reflected in the statements of some child protection professionals who openly proclaim, "Who cares if nine innocents suffer, as long as we get the guilty one!".

Finally, Prosser declares, "It is clear that the problem of false accusations remains endemic in both countries". (U.K. and the U.S.A.).

What harm do children and families suffer as a consequence of false accusations of child abuse?.
The harm to children and families from false accusations of child abuse was well-documented by American researchers, Wakefield and Underwager who stated in a Paper in 1995 that :-

The most extreme example of the impact on a child of false accusation was given by Smith.J.- Aftermath of False Allegation. (1991) who gave an account of a girl under pressure from her mother made a false accusation of abuse against her father. When she later found out that her father had been imprisoned and later committed suicide, she also killed herself.

In Wounded Innocents (1990), Wexler.R. states, "The war against child abuse has become a war against children" and he argues powerfully that,

In 1992, the San Diego County Grand Jury carried out a thorough and extensive investigation of the child protection system in San Diego County and their carefully documented review shows the damage that can be done to children by false accusations and mistaken intervention by the child protection authorities. Representatives of the Grand Jury testified before Congressional Committees regarding their findings.

The Financial Cost of False Accusations of Child Abuse.

Finally, a point which must also be considered, is that false accusations of child abuse carry a very considerable financial cost to the judicial system and particularly to Social Services Departments which are constantly claiming shortages of resources. There are costs to the police, prosecution services, pre-trial custody costs, foster care and residential care costs, social work costs, legal aid, lost wages, and expert medical examinations which take resources from overstretched health services.

The harm being suffered by children in the U.K. from false allegations of child abuse and from incompetent investigations into such false allegations cannot be allowed to continue when considerably higher numbers of children are being harmed by the system designed to protect them from harm.

Charles Pragnell

Social Care Management Consultant