Australia data provided by Michael Jose:
summary on the issue of false allegations in the Family Court. Quoting from:
- Senate Inquiry into Family Law System (heard thousands of submissions on false allegations and the subsequent recommendations received bi-partisan endorsement)
- Family Court judges
- Magistrate surveys
- Family law practitioners
- Family violence evaluators
- Multiple Australian and International research
- Australian Institute if Criminology
- ANROWS
- UK Case study
- Psychologists
- Qld Police
Do not excuse deliberate false allegations.
Working in the industry we know that in certain contexts, false allegations are rife. For instance a false allegation at the commencement of a divorce via an AVO can result in the complainant immediately gaining sole possession of the matrimonial home, free legal representation, a greater share of the property division and exclusive custody of the children. Cases before the court have proved time and time again that there is practically no detriment to making such false allegations, with complainants never punished and their case before the court rarely negatively impacted.
This was finally recognized this year. In response to thousands of submissions: many detailing false allegations, the Senate Inquiry has acknowledged the prevalence of such and the need for government action in relation to perjury charges.
Recommendation 12
www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Family_Law_System/FamilyLaw/Second_Interim_Report/section?id=committees%2Freportjnt%2F024551%2F73995&fbclid=IwAR2G6MzupFZGG2Au6HkRNfDE57sZ0tXF2jQWOj5gk_-ERvnyBHSx6qOUaxAOpinion of the Judiciary
Family Court Judge: Justice David Collier
“The worst are those mothers who direct false allegations of abuse against former partners
It's a horrible weapon”
6 July 2013 SMH
Magistrate Ron Kilner
Domestic violence laws are being used as a weapon to obtain favourable rulings in the family court or permanent residency
11 July 2015 GC Bulletin
Opinion of Family Law Practitioners
Melville and Hunter reported that “family law solicitors also expressed a belief that many women deliberately fabricated allegations in order to deny contact”. Robust language was used reflecting the emotional response to the impact of such allegations.
Angela Melville & Rosemary Hunter, ‘‘As Everybody Knows’: Countering Myths of Gender Bias in Family Law’, (2001) 10 Griffith Law Review, 124 at 127
Those that work within the industry day to day, family law practitioners, confirmed that there was widespread agreement that AVOs are used for tactical purposes.
www.researchgate.net/publication/228185770_The_Views_of_Family_Lawyers_on_Apprehended_Violence_Orders_after_Parental_Separation?fbclid=IwAR112mLGga3RFz9krHiiXCYEKhBb4qk-lwcQZKa8O4D1wS6asZqxL3mxREY"Sadly there are people willing to play the system to win against their ex partners and too often they are empowered in a gender bias way. I'm aware of numerous spurious claims of domestic violence against men because immediately the system presumes he is guilty," he said.
www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/ipswich/are-family-law-courts-biased-against-men/news-story/623fab120060eef43a7ca45ed273c40dOpinion of Family Violence Evaluators
Family violence evaluators, state that they believed that false allegations of intimate partner violence were made in 40-80% of cases. Evaluators that were indoctrinated in the gendered narrative were less likely to identify false allegations.
(Haselschwerdt, Hardesty, & Hans, 2011).
Queensland Police
www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jul/16/queensland-police-union-condemned-over-claims-dvos-used-to-get-advantage-in-family-court-disputes?fbclid=IwAR0FUFGKbr8bjoejSqBusRPp6ycCSa4B1yI_T0Z9oqCwqLfyQat2FL9gxa8Opinion of Judicial Members
The survey of 68 magistrates from New South Wales indicates that 90 per cent of them agreed with the statement that these orders are often sought as tactical devices to aid applicants with family law disputes, including depriving the former partners of any contact with their children.
NSW Judcom Survey 1999
A survey of 38 magistrates in Queensland revealed that 74 per cent of them agreed with the assumption that FVOs are often used for tactical purposes.
Belinda Carpenter, Susan Currie and Rachael Field, ‘Domestic Violence: Views of Queensland Magistrates’
Data reveals only 14 per cent of child sexual abuse claims before Family Court believed to be true by judges
A group of researchers reviewed seven years' worth of relevant cases — from 2012 to 2019 — and found that in only 14 per cent of contested cases, judicial officers expressed a direct belief that allegations of child abuse were true.
www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/child-abuse-family-court-findings-statistics/100355902?fbclid=IwAR3B4twtYCx0VGRivRsjPiBiAc1H3gpkRnrbZbJdi1wpN3nn0OQQscRrqXYResearch
82% of allegations of spousal violence (and 92% of child abuse) in Family Court cases were not supported by any form of corroborative evidence.
Moloney, L, et al, “Allegations of Family Violence and Child Abuse in Family Law Children’s Proceedings – A Pre-Reform Exploratory Study” (2007), Australian Institute of Family Studies, Australian Government.
Women’s allegations of DV were proven to be false. In most cases, the initial allegations of DV were modified considerably by them during the course of the study, particularly when they were faced with the accounts of their children and mothers, admitting in the end that they were neither victims of violence nor acting in self-defence. Charles Sturt University
Sarantakos, S. (2004), ." The Journal of Men's Studies 12, no. 3 (2004)
86% of child abuse claims made by mothers are not true
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ajs4.171?fbclid=IwAR0tphAaPjhJ7Pry-2qMIxZfuQhL6jUD-xg7JDqXi7VEi7udPn__hvb0iRs“A custody or access dispute creates an emotionally charged context, within which intentionally false allegations of maltreatment are more likely to occur.”
Knott, T, Trocme, N and Bala, N, “False Allegations of Abuse and Neglect” (2004)
In Canada, where much of the allegation research has been conducted, Bala and his colleagues noted that “a range of circumstances may lead to a parent making unfounded allegations of abuse after parental separation”
Bala, N. M., Mitnick, M., Trocmé, N., & Houston, C. (2007).
What the public knows
In Australia, a telephone survey of 2000 people in Victoria: 46% of respondents agreed: “women going through custody battles often make up claims of domestic violence to improve their case”. A view held equally by men or women surveyed
Community perceptions of domestic violence ISSN: 1445-7288 Australian Institute of Criminology Published: 19/12/2006 Taylor & Mouzos, 2006.
In a survey with over 12,500 respondents, more than half agreed with the statement that ‘women going through custody battles often make up or exaggerate claims of domestic violence in order to improve their case’
Patrick Parkinson, ‘How Widespread are False Allegations of Abuse?’ News Weekly, Melbourne/Vic, June 25, 2011.
More than two in five Australians (43%) believe that women make up or exaggerate violence in order to secure tactical advantage in disputes about where children will live after separation or divorce.
K Webster, K Diermer, N Honey, S Mannix, J Mickle, J Morgan, A Parkes, V Politoff, A Powell, J Stubbs and A Wards. (2018). Australia’s attitudes to violence against women and gender equality. Findings from the 2017 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS) (Research report, 03/2018), ANROWS
In the United States a study of 302 men who sustained severe partner violence revealed that:“...over half of the men reported that their women partners made false accusations against them, which included that he hit or beat her, that a restraining order was filed against him under false pretences, or that he physically and/or sexually abused the children. A previous study that showed that 50% of men victims of IPV stated that their partners gave false information to the court system in order to gain custody of the children or to obtain a restraining order”.
Hines, D. Douglas, E. (2010), ”,Partner Abuse. 2010 Jan 1; 1(3): 286–313.
A UK Case Study: how financial incentives lead to false allegations
In the UK, new figures show a 30% rise in domestic violence orders made after legal aid was axed in everything but abuse cases in family courts in 2012. Thousands of parents falsely claimed domestic abuse in order to access legal aid and stop estranged partners from seeing their children.
A spokesman for a DV charity said: "We're getting a lot of people coming to us talking about false allegations, whether it's grossly exaggerating events or even completely fabricating them."
The outgoing president of the High Court's family division, Sir James Munby, described false allegations as a "vice in the system".
www.bbc.com/news/education-44628179?SThisFB&fbclid=IwAR12rUcARUeIloL7U-O5iUGdx74K9AxYsKvgIO50MTThZJqWywqv3q7BPFMPsychologist’s opinions
According to Dr Adam Blanch, a psychologist and counsellor, the more a single parent can restrict the other parent’s access to the children the more financial support they receive from the alienated parent and the government, and a [FVO] even when based on allegations that have been unsubstantiated is a great weapon in the fight for primary custody and restricted access.
www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=20466&page=3&fbclid=IwAR1NsNThH2jU3-SiPVfrvxhNP7OwH1cYbsxF_m4IulSDHuWdGRvtXL53G4MFalse allegations of abuse in child custody cases are an all-too-common phenomenon…. false allegations can be a powerful weapon to limit or deny custody and/or visitation in a vindictive manner.
Nothing could be worse than a custody decision that is based on a false allegation.
False allegations of abuse must not be tolerated in the court system.
The accusing parent may not be appropriate for primary custody. Even shared custody may not be a good idea. A parent’s willingness to fabricate an allegation of abuse against the other parent is a poor prognostic indicator. It is not simply an accident or a mistake. A false allegation is an intentional and purposeful attempt to undermine the child custody proceeding.
www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/finding-difficult-truth?fbclid=IwAR2nH9yhZFwUJkiTdMTGYe1GGVHB4jSijecovskaUfwXhb-JvwHjpzzED2kOur ABC too
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