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Table 2
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Some Characteristics of Supportive Parents in True Molestations and
Parents
Promoting Exaggerated or False Allegations
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Actual Sexual Abuse |
Unreliable/Fictitious Allegations |
| 1. Parent is shocked, upset, even angry, but not
vindictive; is able to share neutral or positive information about the
suspect; provides a range of information about child's development, a
multitude of qualitative details about the parent/child relationships and
family life. |
1. Parent maintains outward veneer of appropriateness
until pressed, then becomes very controlling and/or angry, grudgingly
provides information about the child's development, provides few or no
qualitative details of a neutral or positive nature about the suspect and
his parent/child relationships/family life. Looks for ways to exaggerate,
seizes upon opportunities to expand upon any act and place it in the worst
possible light. |
| 2. Data about frequency of or nature of psychopathology
is limited; mothers may have been victims of incest, may have
unconsciously colluded in offense pattern; some may continue to deny the
molestation even after disclosure or discovery. Those living with the
perpetrator vs. those who are separated or divorced may be less protective
& warm toward the child, and more dependent upon the father, but
behaviors related to collusiveness may be more rare than previously
thought (Faller, 1988). |
2. Some accusers are frankly psychotic; others exhibit
histrionic or borderline personality features, tending to present the
accused as almost a caricature of the sexually obsessed, bizarre,
"dirty old man." Some accusers are not necessarily
psychologically pathological but may exhibit hate toward the accused
former spouse (Wakefield & Underwager, 1990). |
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