Does anyone have a link to information on how often that happens, just curious about the issue.
I have no statistics, but a lawyer friend told me that it had become almost a routine stratagem.
Nothing for the person making the accusation to lose -legally- if the make the accusation vague enough, and lots of problems for he accused.
I know of one case where the wife was coerced into asking for a restraining order. She was threatened with having her children taken by child protective services if she did not, and her husband spent months sleeping in a car or finding places to stay. All his guns were immediately confiscated. Eventually, at great cost and aggravation, they beat the charges and won, in the sense that they did not end up with convictions. But the ‘process’ was used to put them through the ringer.
They were whistleblowers at the local hospital, and the local elite had it in for them.
She is an immigrant from Mexico, so a bit more unsure of her rights than most.
My lawyer friend told me that they would not have taken her kids, it was a bluff.
I asked him, “How often is that bluff used?” He said, it depends on the jurisdiction. I mentioned a local community, and he said not that often. I mentioned Yuma, and he said, “All that I know of”, so, effecively, 100% of the women who ended up with interactions with the local criminal justice system, are threatened with having their kids taken, to coerce them into doing something that they otherwise would not do.
It might have changed. This was several years ago, and I have not followed up.