New at Reason

December 7, 2006

Cathy Young asks what role false abuse charges play in family legal disputes.

Comments

|12.7.06 @ 7:03AM|#

Cathy proposes a fair solution to a difficult problem.

Sam Franklin|12.7.06 @ 7:21AM|#

This is one of those subjects where that legendary and classic Cathy Young style is the only way to treat the subject. Good article, even though I basically knew all that stuff already, it is nice to see it in print, Youngstyle.

Guy Montag|12.7.06 @ 7:37AM|#

Only skimmed it, but looks very good. Will come back to it for more detail later.

From personal experience, my ex pulled a lot of crap in a sloppy manner. She never accused me of abusing our son, but she did make an accusation of spousal abuse in her court filing.

That accusation was not persued at trial, I suspect because my lawyer pointed out to hers that the only person who had ever called the police from our home for any sort of family trouble was me and the Sheriff's department had the records available.

Had she been a better fabricator I could have been in a lot of undeserved trouble.

R C Dean|12.7.06 @ 8:05AM|#

All the incentives run one way, in my (second-hand) experience. For the woman, charges of abuse are a potential home run (e.g., gets her spouse barred from any contact with kids, giving her sole and exclusive custody), and since the man can't prove the negative, they come at no real risk to her.

|12.7.06 @ 9:27AM|#

On a side-note, it is good to see Reason responding to our complaints about the shortness of Cathy Youngs articles by...increasing the font size.

|8-{

Larry A|12.7.06 @ 9:40AM|#

it is good to see Reason responding to our complaints about the shortness of Cathy Youngs articles by...increasing the font size.

"Our?" An article should be long enough to cover the subject, then quit. Cathy's do so.

But what do I know? Among other things, I write 300-word flash fiction stories.

|12.7.06 @ 10:04AM|#

Larry,

the complaints were along the lines that her articles were only long enough to gloss over both sides of an issue, but never delve too deeply into it. Which is fine for the cover of a print newspaper I suppose, but there's no reason to cut it so short here.

|12.7.06 @ 11:58AM|#

Charges of abuse are a big stick when it comes to divorce and child custody. Prior to many divorces absolutely no abuse of any type is reported or even in evidence. After the paperwork is filed, abuse complaints provide thousands of dollars to attorneys and their clients, as well as court ordered psycholigists, guardians ad-liteums, and destroy the lives of those accused. The court should penalize the attorneys and their clients that after 20 years of marriage with no complaint of any evidence suddenly file child and spousal abuse claims.

|12.7.06 @ 12:36PM|#

Courts should penalize anyone who blatantly makes up accusations of any kind, so that true abuse cases (no matter the gender of the abuser) will get the attention they deserve. Joint physical and legal custody should be the norm. More importantly than mothers or fathers rights should be the rights of children to have equal, unfettered access to both parents.

|12.7.06 @ 2:22PM|#

How can the court weed out genuine cases from false accusations? Many times the accusations are cases of "he said/she said" with no real physical evidence to bring forth. Even in cases of state involvement, verdicts of guilty are given by juries even without real proof of abuse "just to be on the safe side". Also worth mentioning would be the crushing case load in most state funded family service units, that make a thorough investigation nearly impossible.

Sam Franklin|12.7.06 @ 9:34PM|#

On the one hand, Ms Young's articles are even-handed and brief enough to quickly convey some important dialectic or another in all its cussedness. On the other hand, its kinda ReadersDigesty and superficial.

Guy Montag|12.9.06 @ 12:56PM|#

Sam Franklin,

I am not sure where you are getting superficial from. All I am disappointed about is that there is no photo of her on the bio page.