For nearly seven months Andrea Berry had been trying to get police to take seriously her fears that her ex-husband was sexually abusing their 3-year-old daughter, Sophia, and using her in child pornography, but she was running out of options. A police commander in the town of Elizabeth, where the father lived, had bluntly told Berry the case was closed and to stop pestering the police, … [Read more...]
Maryland Judges Must Be Trained on Child Custody and Abuse – Opinion
There’s this place around the corner from you, seemingly insignificant, but it hosts a house of horrors. It’s a place where the same therapists, medical providers and teachers who are legally required to report suspected child abuse are not allowed to save a child before more abuse occurs. Where truth is obsolete, and right and wrong don’t matter. It’s called family court. And I’ve been trapped … [Read more...]
The Failure of French Justice in the Face of Child Victims of Sexual Violence
(Translated from French) Child victims of sexual assault suffer from a denial of protection due to the increasingly frequent use, particularly in the French judicial system, of anti-victim speeches using the concept of the “parental alienation syndrome”. Many personalities are asking that “Parliament take up this need for protection”. Read more here. … [Read more...]
Victims of Domestic Abuse Find No Haven in Family Courts
Author Joan Meier, Professor of Law, George Washington University The #MeToo movement may have shifted the balance of credibility on sexual abuse and harassment at work more toward victims and away from alleged perpetrators. But the same cannot be said regarding men’s violence and abuse at home: In fact, women’s reports of domestic violence are still widely rejected, especially in one … [Read more...]
‘Women Are Routinely Discredited’: How Courts Fail Mothers and Children Who Have Survived Abuse
This report from The Fuller Project, in partnership with the Guardian, details the routine family court failure to believe and protect mothers and children who have survived abuse and how abusive partners using the courts to control and harass their current and former partners. “I’m losing everything,” says Marissa, who learned last September, in the middle of an already contentious custody … [Read more...]