Detecting Parental Deception in the Child Safeguarding Context

Abstract

Amid a scarce body of literature examining the ability of practitioners to distinguish between truthful and deceptive behaviours by parents, this qualitative study evaluated how social workers, healthcare professionals and police officers identified parental deception in child safeguarding contexts. Using constructivist grounded theory, primary data were obtained through interviews and observations with multiagency child safeguarding professionals from three local authorities in England. Results indicate that multiagency practitioners identify and respond differently to features of parental deception. Social workers and healthcare practitioners distinguish between malicious and benign parental deception, and do not acknowledge benign untruths told by parents as lies. All practitioners in the police, social work and healthcare are familiar with various parental deception tactics in their practices, and they rely on their intuition and practice wisdom in detecting deception. Key Practitioner Messages Child safeguarding multiagency practitioners identify and respond differently to features of parental deception. Multiagency professionals identify falsification, omission, evasion and distraction as important behaviour characteristics of parental deception. Deception tactics are deployed selectively by parents with different multiagency practitioners: avoidance, intimidation and refusal to engage are indicators of possible lies in social care; parents are ‘sticking together’ in police practice; and tactics such as aggression, parents exaggerating symptoms and having no explanation for children's injuries are present in healthcare settings.