3 Women 3 Ways

FAMILY COURT RESPONSES TO INCEST AND SEXUAL ABUSE IN CUSTODY DISPUTES The Boston Globe just ran a story about a little girl who, for five years, was forced by the courts to live with the father who she said was sexually abusing her.  The girl’s mother believed the child, and took her to the doctor, then to the psychologist, and everyone believed the girl. Then they got to the courts and that’s where the child’s life hit a very sad bottom. Even sadder:  this is happening all the time. Thousands of times. Thousands of children. What is going on with a court system that forces children to be exposed and at risk by those who are abusing them? Maralee McLean is a child advocate, protective parent, domestic violence expert, and author of PROSECUTED BUT NOT SILENCED: Courtroom Reform for Sexually Abused Children. Her work has been published in the ABA Child Law Journal, Women’s E-News and other publications on the problems of family courts not protecting abused children. She organized a National Rally of Mothers