{"id":564,"date":"2009-02-27T07:31:47","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T13:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/crawler\/?p=564"},"modified":"2009-02-26T08:42:27","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T14:42:27","slug":"myths-about-paternity-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/2009\/02\/27\/myths-about-paternity-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"myths about paternity fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Emily<\/a>Science Alert<\/a> released a story yesterday about new research on paternity testing. Public discussion and debate about paternity fraud has become more prominent in the last decade, accompanied by a dramatic rise in the number of people taking genetic paternity tests. While\u00a0 genetic testing has raised both ethical and legal issues, new research from sociologist Michael Gilding of Swinburne University suggests that it is built upon one central myth — “that cases of misattributed paternity are commonplace.” The results of his research have been published in the latest issue of Sociology: The Journal of the British Sociological Association<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With many authorities publicly stating that between 10 and 30 per cent of men may be raising a child that is not genetically theirs; on first appearance paternity uncertainty does seem prevalent. However after analysing the most recent evidence from the UK, Gilding puts the rate at a much tamer figure, between one and two per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI analysed data based on medical records, sex surveys, DNA testing laboratories and genetic studies. It clearly shows that claims about the rate of paternity uncertainty have been hugely overstated,\u201d he said. \u201cBasically what this means is that chances are, your dad really is your dad.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The claims:<\/p>\n

While the study examined data from the UK, according to Gilding the results are a reflection of similar patterns in Europe, North America and Australia. He claims the inflated figures of between 10 and 30 per cent originated from some questionable research carried out between the 1970s and 1990s. Despite the dubious nature of this research, these figures have continually been touted as accurate, allegedly due to the commercial interests of the paternity testing industry and influence from fathers\u2019 rights activists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But why?<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the advent of DNA testing in the late 1980s, a commercial paternity testing industry has emerged worldwide, mostly grounded in disputed paternity,\u201d said Gilding.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe industry is the second most lucrative application of genetic identity testing after forensics, so there is a lot of incentive to raise fathers\u2019 doubts about the legitimacy of their children. It goes right to the heart of people\u2019s insecurities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilding also believes that evolutionary psychologists have given academic respectability to inflated estimates of paternal discrepancy, as it fits in with their belief that men are \u2018hard wired\u2019 to seek as many sexual partners as they can, and women to seek men of superior genetic quality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Science Alert released a story yesterday about new research on paternity testing. Public discussion and debate about paternity fraud has become more prominent in the last decade, accompanied by a dramatic rise in the number of people taking genetic paternity tests. While\u00a0 genetic testing has raised both ethical and legal issues, new research from sociologist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39074],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sightings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":567,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/clippings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}