Child Abuse and the Family Law System
Outside of those who have experienced the Family Law legal system, few truly can imagine much less understand the actions of judges, lawyers, politicians and pro-women special interest groups in regards to the treatment of children. The Machiavellian treatment of child welfare for political purposes by these groups is utterly unbelievable until one witnesses first hand the clever manner in which they operate. After such an experience, one is left with shock and disbelief that such a system can act publicly with impunity. Attempts to describe the experience to others leaves them only with disbelief since they can not conceive officers of the court in a democratic society could act in such a manner.
We all have been conditioned by our culture, religion and government to believe certain things as the underpinnings of our functioning in society at large. When people begin to hear stories contradicting those beliefs, the general first reaction is disbelief and dismissal of contradicting ideas. And therein lies the strength of the politically correct and acceptable behavior and ideas. We all "assume" those in power are exercising power in the name of society are doing so to the benefit of society, this is an essential element to our belief in security. Everyone wants to believe they are secure and that those in power are working to ensure security. Individual circumstances demonstrating otherwise are promptly dismissed as exceptions.
There were "an estimated 896,000 children were found to be victims" of child abuse in 2002.
Can we agree on something? No adult has a right to mistreat a child for any reason and no judge or officer of the court with integrity can excuse, condone or justify child abuse due to the perpetrator's gender or standing in the community. Most people can agree with this statement on its face and we all "want" to believe this is happening. The fact that it happens sometimes is more than enough to confirm our cherished beliefs. When it doesn’t happen, we desperately want to believe it was an isolated incident, to believe otherwise throws in question our security.Hollywood does not create reality or represent truth, it is in the "money making business" of telling a story to a willing audience. Thus we have seen and heard compelling tails based on stereotypes about men and women. There is truth, the truth is found by examining all the facts, not just the ones you feel comfortable with or popular or the ones that only confirm your beliefs. Politicians and others in power use stereotypes and the public’s cherished beliefs to advance their objectives.
Social policy choices have been made by judges, lawyers and politicians to use children to further their personal and political agendas. We object to judges, lawyers, politicians and special interest groups like NOW who use the suffering of children to vilify those who are not politically correct (men, blacks and people of faith). The mainstay of this political agenda is the politically correct belief that child abuse is committed by men, i.e. not women. This is in complete contradiction to the national statistics that women are involved in 63.7% of all child abuse. No one denies that some child abuse is committed by men. The big lie is the denial concerning women who perpetrate child abuse and the judges, lawyers, politicians and special interests groups who cover it up through silence and misinformation.
In many cases we are dealing with single mothers who are perpetrators of child abuse. Most studies do not report the living circumstance of the children in question, we contend this silence is deliberate to cover up the horrific social policy failure by the Family Law system. Looking at the comments made by the researchers, it seems that they are embarrassed by the lopsided percentages of mothers involved in abuse by their attempts to explain away the glaring differences. If the Family Law judges were actually doing what they were supposed to in the first place, child abuse would be reduced substantially by insisting that the best interest of the child (which is supposed to be the law) be more important than that of women in the legal arena. In the Family Law system, the best interest of the mother is the best interest of the child, they are not seen as separate or conflicting interests.
How can we say such things? Personal experience by many litigants and lawyers testifies to the social policy failure of the courts. When an elementary school child can have their head repeatedly slammed against the floor by a single mother only to have charges dropped on a technicality to retain custody of that child one must question the validity and integrity of the legal system. When a teenage girl must repeatedly lock herself in a room to be safe from an out of control mother one must question the integrity of the court when it chastises the non-custodial parent for reporting it. When a mother who murders her young child is granted custody of an older sibling years later, we must question the track record of the court when it awards 90% of custody cases to women. It seems only when Susan Smith murders all her children that the court acts to do something against a female. However, when men are involved in abuse or even the allegation of abuse, we are presented with a quick response by the court removing the child from the male by change in custody or incarceration. This disproportional response in treatment of abusers demonstrates the bias thinking of the court.
When men and women stop buying the political justifications for allowing child abuse because of the gender of the perpetrator we will come a long way to addressing the issue. The only way to protect children is to expose the political agenda of the Family Courts by shaming the judges, lawyers, politicians and special interest groups with the truth. If they can't do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, then shame is the next best motivator. The dysfunction can only be dealt with by demanding equal treatment under the law of those who run the system.
Be apart of the solution, email and complain to your legislators. Demand Truth, demand public accountability of judges, demand outcome monitoring by gender and race of all Family Law legal decisions. End the cover up. When the legal system is faced with the task to explain it's disproportional decisions to the public it will cease its discriminatory behavior and in the process children will get an even break. Children are not property or pawns in a cynical legal game they are human beings deserving respect, dignity and love.
References
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cm02/index.htm by the National Clearing House on Child Abuse http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cm02/chapterthree.htm#perps Report dealing on child abuse http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/publications/cm02/figure3_6.htmBar graph showing perpetrators of child abuse. We arrived at the 65% previously (four years ago) and now in 2002 for women by adding 3 categories of child abuse: by women only 40.3%, where mother and father participate 18% and mother and other participate 5.4% = 63.7%
www.oocities.org/dscott8186/legislation.htm(Readers may reach Dan Scott at
fightbigotry2002@yahoo.com ) Articles