How children are suffering harm by those with a duty to protect them By Charles Pragnell

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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, "The child protection system responds to abuse allegations with much reinforcement for making an accusation but has no accountability. An allegation produces large and immediate payoffs and has no cost to the system or the accuser. This makes the child protection system very vulnerable to manipulation and distortion by troubled and distressed persons pursuing their own private purpose." 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.

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