Our thanks to Tim for this. It’s good to see such a piece in the Telegraph. I’ve posted a comment, and invite you to do likewise. Thank you.
Our thanks to Tim for this. It’s good to see such a piece in the Telegraph. I’ve posted a comment, and invite you to do likewise. Thank you.
Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
Have commented on the Telegraph site thus: The 4% figure for paternity fraud as an average over the UK is almost certainly too low. This result from Bellis et al (2005) relates to tests in which paternity had not been disputed but which allowed an opt-out from people who might have been concerned about the outcome. In contrast, in the same paper, multi-nation data from cases where paternity had been disputed indicated the man in question was not the father in 28% of cases. There are several other sources of estimates for the rate of paternity fraud, all very uncertain, but mostly in excess of 10%. It seems likely that the UK average figure is at least 10%. The strap line to this article would therefore be more accurate if it read, “More than a million men in the UK could be unwittingly raising children who are not their own”.
Many thanks. His talk in Detroit was a gem – informative and hilarious. Let me know if you want me to find a link.
Hi Mike, FYI, I sent a link to your blog to Carnell Smith.
Agreed. The only way we’ll ever learn the true incidence of this form of paternity fraud is compulsory paternity testing, surely best carried out at birth.
From to 2 to 10% of the fathers in the UK could be paying to raise a child that is not their own. If I recall correctly, Carnell Smith, who spoke at last years AVfM Conference, had numbers that supported estimates up to 30% in the southern US. The number from the US leads me to think that UK numbers might be understated and may require further study.