gender bias in family court uk
The real problem facing family justice is the slashing of court budgets and the absence of legal aid in the vast majority of children cases.His Honour Glenn BrasseRetired circuit judge, London. A child psychiatrist giving evidence many years ago made a more powerful and subtle argument directed towards the mother, for contact between children and a non-resident father. The anomaly is that while the accuser may have legal aid representation, the accused, usually a man, does not. He suggested that with a hostile mother (often for very good reason) and in the absence of contact, a child might well grow up with strong negative feelings about the absent father. The study also finds that “a higher number of residence orders were made for mothers than for fathers” (page 56), that the “most common outcome was for the child to live with the mother and the father to be granted a contact order” (page 58), and that fathers’ sole-residence order applications had a 50% success rate (page 64) against 63% for mothers (page 65); in applications brought while parents are still living together, over three-quarters of children end up with their mother, six times as many as end up with their father (page 74). (October 2000). Why? Sonia Sodha says most judgments in the family courts relating to separated parents’ contact with children are never published and that there is a lack of transparency about how these decisions are made (There is a bias in family courts – but it’s not against men, Journal, 6 March). The denying perpetrator needed an effective defence in the family court; they needed a lawyer and an ‘expert’ to support that defence. Bias against men in family courts could be gender discrimination. “Of concern is current research which calls into serious question the expertise of these ‘experts’ when it comes to proceedings involving coercively controlling violence”. One in four women and one in six men will be a victim of domestic violence in their lifetime, according to Living Without Abuse. Instead, the authors note that “our findings … are not statistically representative of the general practice in 2011” (page 8). Sodha also suggests that the system is weighted against women. If you are reading this the chances are you have already previewed a number of websites from a number of authorities, both lawyers and laypersons, making claims about bias in the family courts. Richard Gardner, a disreputable court reporter, created a defence which blamed mothers for a fathers abuse – he called his theory ‘parental alienation syndrome’, and a cottage industry of charlatans emerged along with specialist parental alienation lawyers. Gender neutral couples have two children, regardless of child gender, while the gender biased parents stop after they have a boy or two children, whichever comes first. Seriously, if father's are interested in equal parenting time after divorce, why are the majority of them spending no time at all with their children? 26 March 2015 . Family court judges in the UK are mandated to take into consideration domestic abuse. 18 December 2014. Actual bias in the courts of England and Wales is blessedly rare. By re-labelling coercive control as ‘conflict’, the resulting contact or custody orders are no different from those handed down in a non-domestic abuse case. In CFLP’s world, we often hear criticism of the family courts based on its perceived gender bias against fathers in children matters; we often hear criticism that the child support system, and the financial system on divorce, is stacked the other way. Coercively controlling perpetrators all have something in common – they don’t accept their behaviour is at fault; they lie, deny and blame their victim. Click Here: http://www.FathersHelpHotline.com to order The Fathers Rights Protection System or The Audio Gold System. So much so that the Children and Families Act 2014 amended the Children Act 1989 to include a presumption that after a child’s parents separate it will be in the child’s interest for both parents to be involved in the child’s life … In Australia, human rights lawyer, Serene Teffaha, of boutique Australian law firm Advocate Me, is taking on the family justice system in the courtroom on behalf of all women and children who have suffered from gross injustice as a result. These reporters do irreparable damage to women and children and as a result of their inaccurate reporting, women are not given a level playing field in the courtroom. Where Does Family Court Gender Bias Originate From? Sonia Sodha. A successful outcome in a case where domestic violence has been alleged (by a person of any gender) will rarely garner the attention of the press. Parents who are in a custody dispute did not start off that way. Statistically, it appears that the family courts in the United States are biased against fathers. All forms of feminism seeks to empower women and that most certainly also includes those that seek dominance rather than equality. Judges and court reporters are entitled to their beliefs, but when those personal beliefs impact their decisions and the safety of children, then a register of interests must be made available so parents can make an informed choice rather than enter a system to get tricked, blamed, vilified and pathologised. The ‘family system theory’ reporters, wrongly believe, just as their abusive client believes, in false stereotypes that have been widely disproved by credible scholars. Urgent action is needed to remedy this unjust situation. • Sonia Sodha cites a “review of published court decisions” in support of her article. Our systems must not oppress, and our systems must not cover up and enable child abuse. There is nothing new, though, about judges threatening to transfer residence to a father, from a mother who deliberately thwarts orders for contact. Experts influencing family court decisions in these cases should have expertise in coercive control and report accordingly. What should be most concerning is that turning the public against judges may so undermine confidence in the family justice system that people will either not try to seek redress or, worse, take the law into their own hands. coercive control * Narcissistic abuse * family court. Achieving this often in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, the judiciary and the ‘expert’ report writers need to make coercively controlling abuse and intimidation ‘disappear’. • Sonia Sodha is surely correct in asserting that issues in court relating to a father’s contact with children are highly fraught. Increasingly, divorced fathers across the country have long expressed concern about a systemic bias in family court. Another theory behind some of the gender bias we’re seeing in the court system relates to a mother’s expectations. The unethical experts believe that the perpetrators are not to blame for their behaviour; their behaviour is induced, through stress or mutual conflict. I will show you how to remain calm, and how to communicate in the family court for the best chance of a successful outcome, HERE. This article is more than 9 months old. Additionally, men are awarded less support on average than mothers who are awarded support. According to Aaron Larson, previous to the twentieth century, children were often treated as property of the father by common law jurisdictions. This research has been available since 2016. The “parental alienation syndrome” to which she refers may or may not exist as a phenomenon, but it is, sadly, true that some mothers turn their children unfairly against their fathers, just as often as is the converse. In addition, more and more people are having to represent themselves. There is specific and calculated gender bias in the family Courts system, to say otherwise is to say that the hundreds of thousands of men stating it are wrong and you alone are right which would only lead to stereotypical assertations that inherently lead to a bias conclusion. In fact, perceived bias against men in family courts has, in large part, provided the so-called “Men’s Rights Movement” with momentum. Furthermore, the court can take measures to make it easier for an alleged victim to give evidence, by providing screened witness boxes, evidence given over a video link, and intermediaries to help the cognitively impaired. Both child and adult victim are court-ordered into communication and contact with coercively controlling perpetrators. The truth about “gender bias” in Family Courts. No two family cases are the same, but the stakes are always high when you are dealing with serious allegations of domestic abuse. Family Court Reporters: Gender Bias, Victim Blaming & the Whitewashing of Domestic Violence, academic research was published by Griffith University, under-qualified and unethical court reporters, alienate them from the domestic abuse victim, lack of understanding around coercive control, parental alienation in domestic abuse cases, ← How The Family Courts Contribute to Gender-Based Violence, Coercive Control And The Family Court Trap →. The unethical court reporters are still working today in the family court system and diagnosing mothers and treating children with their secret, special therapy to make children believe abuse did not occur. This is not a criticism of my fellow professionals, magistrates, judges or the many other people who dedicate their lives to this area of the profession. These ideas may be old hat to many of your child psychiatrist readers, and it would be good to know of their current standing.His Honour Paul CollinsHorton-cum-Studley, Oxfordshire. Gender Bias Articles by Gene C. Colman. onia Sodha says most judgments in the family courts relating to separated parents’ contact with children are never published and that there is a lack of transparency about how these decisions are made (, There is a bias in family courts – but it’s not against men. In this example, first-born females receive 0.25 units of investment on average and first-born boys receive 0.75 on average (i.e., β = -0.5). 3. We would want to explore whether females were not applying for jobs known to be “for the boys”. All of the state task forces on gender bias in the courts have wrestled with these difficult questions. Coercive control is thus ignored or minimised, re-constructed as inconsequential, re-constituted as something else (e.g. It delights the perpetrator and traumatises their victims, for years on end. Years ago, mothers were expected to do one thing: be mothers. What doesn't seem reasonable is the noise that the Men's Rights movement makes about gender bias in Family Court, not based on the statistics above, anyway. Three features of that report (Harding and Newnham, 2015) jumped out at me as an academic, quantitative social scientist: 1. Those negative feelings might at some level develop into the child having damaging negative feelings about half their own genetic inheritance, with consequences for their own feelings of self-worth, emotional development and ability to make relationships. Constructing the child’s best interests in terms of maintaining the parent/child relationship, even when that parent is psychologically unsafe and violent, is not only putting children in grave danger, it's putting adult victims in grave danger too. First … No child should get subjected to abuse due to gender bias in the family court system and lack of due diligence when appointing court reporters. That women, post-separation, are manipulative, vengeful, and bitter; that women exaggerate or intentionally lie about abuse. Our lawyers explain that just because women are considered culturally better at parenting than men does not give the court a legal right to award more child custody rights to the mother unless there are facts proving that the child’s best interests would be met if he or she remains to live with the mother. Individuals and groups have complained about this bias of the courts for several years, but it’s simply a fact that … At its 1988 annual meeting, the Conference of Chief Justices adopted a resolution urging every Chief Justice to establish a task force "devoted to the study of gender bias in the courts." Have you been falsely accused of alienating your child in Family Court, when you have evidence of abuse? Once the abusive parent and their parental alienation team deny the psychological abuse and win custody, ironically, the coercively controlling parent then goes on to psychologically abuse their children and alienate them from the domestic abuse victim! Here, maintaining abusive fathers’ relationships with their children are the primary consideration in determinations of a child’s best interests. The research found that “the biggest predictor of custodial/visitation recommendations was beliefs held by evaluators about domestic violence”. 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