Child Contact Disputes Between Parents and Allegations of Sex Abuse: What Does the Research Say?

Abstract

This article is written by a psychologist practicing in the area of clinical and forensic psychology. He has written widely in the area of child sex abuse, including a book entitled Paedophilia. He has dealt with many cases of parental alienation where sex abuse by one parent has been alleged. The object of this article is to try to provide a way of clarifying whether or not sexual abuse has occurred between an adult and a child, especially when implacable hostility exists between the parents who have parted. It is at such times that many custodial parents make allegations of sexual abuse against a now-absent parent, usually the father, to prevent access. It is important to protect children from actual sex abuse when it has occurred and to prevent this from reoccurring. It is, however, equally important not to allow false sexual allegations against a former partner who might have done nothing wrong but carried out his role as a caring and loving parent. The appendices of the article consist of an inventory that can be used by practitioners to differentiate true from false sex abuse allegations especially in relation to parental alienation conflicts.

Keywords:

• sex abuse
• true/false
• contact disputes