Men's Rights Agency - False Allegations
Families torn apart by false allegations
Under the heading "Child abuse undetected, MP warns" (Brisbane Courier Mail, 18/8/97) Federal Family Services Minister Judi Moylan expresses her concerns that "many child sex abuse cases were not being detected by authorities".
The Family Services Minister told the newspaper "that while sex abuse within families was being widely reported and detected, the recent New South Wales Wood royal commission had uncovered widespread evidence of abuse outside families.
Her response was in reply to statements made by Dr. Dorothy Scott, the deputy head of Melbourne University's School of Sociology who has recognised many of the allegations made within the family environment are false.
Dr Scott told the Courier Mail reporters that in Victoria 25 in every 1000 children was the subject of a child protection notification, but only one in five complaints were substantiated and only a tiny proportion made their way to court.
Dr Scott will tell a conference in Canberra, dealing with "home visiting" there is "need for counselling from neutral, non-institutional people before the child protection system is involved."
Furthermore, Dr Scott acknowledges in the report that "large numbers of vulnerable families are deeply humiliated and alienated by the system of intrusive investigation, which often does not result in any assistance to the family."
Unfortunately the Courier Mail is confusing the issue or deliberately attempting to, by linking allegations of child abuse within families, many of which are false and made to gain an advantage in upcoming custody disputes in their efforts to "extend their current scoop" relating to the lack of investigation into "child paedophilia". To add to the confusion the article has been strategically placed next to one with the heading "Documents show paedophiles protected".
Hence, the important observations of Dr Scott will be lost in the mounting campaign against paedophilia.
The two issues are distinctly separate and should be treated as such. Resorting to these tactics only detracts from the importance and necessity of uncovering practicing paedophiles/paedophile networks and bringing them to justice on the one hand and on the other, trying to stop people making false allegations in custody disputes or when they wish to "punish an ex partner".
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