Paternity Fraud - Occurrence

Occurrence

A 2005 scientific review of international published studies of paternal discrepancy found a range in incidence from 0.8% to 30% (median 3.7%, with half of the academic studies on the subject, i.e. eight, yielding rates from  2.0% to 9.6%), suggesting that the widely quoted and unsubstantiated figure of 10% of non-paternal events is an overestimate. However, in situations where disputed parentage was the reason for the paternity testing there were higher levels; an incidence of 17% to 33% (median of 26.9%). Most at risk were those born to younger parents, to unmarried couples and those of lower socio-economic status, or from certain cultural groups.

A 2008 study in the United Kingdom found that fathers were wrongly identified in 0.2% of the cases processed by the Child Support Agency. Of those resolved with DNA testing between 2004 and 2008 between 10 and 19% of mothers had named the wrong father; none of the women were prosecuted.

In 2012 the Iowa Supreme Court in ruling to allow a paternity fraud tort to proceed as they fall "within the traditional boundaries of fraud law", but advised caution in bringing cases, as they would be "hard to prove, emotional and embarrassing".