From refusal to reconciliation: family relationships after an accusation based on recovered memories.

In following families who reported to the False Memory Foundation between 1992 and 2001 that a member had charged them with incest, a survey questionnaire (with a 42% return rate) was sent to some 4,400 families. These data demonstrate that 99% of these accusers were white, 93% were female, 77% were graduates, 86% were in psychotherapy, and 82% accused their father. Such accusations were rare events before 1985 but then grew exponentially in frequency, peaking in the 2-year period from 1991 to 1992, with 579 accusations.