Substantiation of sexual abuse charges when parents dispute custody or visitation

Recent news reports have implied that charges of sexual child abuse during parental separation or divorce are often deliberately falsified. Such a conclusion could be harmful if it biased practitioners faced with such allegations in clinical practice. To investigate this concern, sexual abuse cases in a hospital-based consecutive series and in one author's clinical practice were reviewed. Abuse allegations with and without a concomitant custody or visitation dispute were compared. A custody or visitation dispute occurred in 12 (39%) of 31 sexual abuse complaints lodged against a parent. Allegedly abused children whose parents contested custody or visitation were significantly younger than those for whom custody or visitation was not an issue (5.4 v 7.8 years, P = .02). Sexual abuse allegations were substantiated less frequently when there was concomitant parental conflict (67% v 95%, nonsignificant) but were nevertheless substantiated more than half of the time.