Parental alienation should have no place in our law or legal system

Parental alienation is already being misused in our family courts to the extent that victims of domestic abuse are afraid to disclose abuse for fear of being accused of alienation.

In America, more than fifty thousand children each year are forced by courts into unsupervised contact with an abusive parent. More than 70% of domestic abuse perpetrators gain custody of children. More than 770 children have been murdered by a divorcing or separating parent since 2008. For children in America, bravely speaking out about abuse is no guarantee of escaping it. The courts often overlook and dismiss allegations of domestic and sexual abuse. In many cases they do so because of the aggressive misuse of a concept called parental alienation (PA).

Despite there being no scientific evidence for it, parental alienation has become a dominant force in American courts as the standard defence against domestic abuse allegations.

If we take protecting children in the UK seriously, then we must look to the experience of the US with parental alienation. It shows us quite how dangerous this concept is, and why it has no place in UK law or our legal system.

Source: Parental alienation should have no place in our law or legal system

One thought on “Parental alienation should have no place in our law or legal system”

  1. I have only known of one case but then I am seldom associated with the court! On this occasion a few years ago, a divorce was in progress when one of the children told mother that his father had interfered with him. When the mother reported that to the Barrister he warned her NOT to bring that up in court; she did. The magistrate immediately accused the mother of ‘pouring poison into the child’s ears’, ordered that DoCS remove them from the mother. DoCS said they would not remove screaming children from the court . Eventually a relative was found but the mother was not to go within some distance of the children(3). To cut a very long and unhappy story short, the Magistrate was found to be ‘unwell’ at the time, I think it was five months before the children were delivered to their mother without any explanation?

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