Delusional Disorder and False Allegations of Child Sexual Abuse: A Case Report

Abstract

Child sexual abuse is a public health problem worldwide. When a court carries out an investigation into cases of sexual abuse, they are likely to ask for a genital examination report from a forensic pathologist indicating whether they believe sexual abuse contact has occurred. Any suspicion about the sexual abuse of a child should be evaluated prudently. Nevertheless, the investigation of sexual abuse is sometimes undertaken according to misguided or unnecessary complaints from concerned parents suffering from mental illness. Three siblings who were 10, 6, and 6 years old were registered with Child Protective Services (CPS) three times in sixteen months following allegations of sexual abuse. Though the genital examinations of all the children were normal, the mother’s behavior and statements were found to be doubtful. Therefore, this case was immediately reported to the legal authorities. After that, the mother of the siblings consulted an adult psychiatrist to determine whether she had a mental illness. After the consultation, she was diagnosed with the persecutory subtype of delusional disorder (DD). In this case, it was revealed that maternal mental illness gave rise to improper claims. Parental mental status should always be considered in claims of child sexual abuse.

Keywords

• forensic science
• forensic medicine
• child maltreatment
• delusional disorder
• sexual abuse
• mental illness