en(gender)ed

On this episode, our guest is Paul Griffin, Legal Director at Child Justice, Inc., one of the few organizations in the country dedicated to ensuring a child’s right to be legally protected from an abusive parent.  As Legal Director, Paul – along with his colleague, Alexandra Sandacz -- represents non-abusive, protective parents in child-custody cases in which there is evidence of domestic violence or child abuse. Paul also works to coordinate the pro bono legal work that well-respected law firms offer to protect these victims who may otherwise become “lost in the system” after exposure to family violence, physical and or sexual abuse, substance addictions, or neglect.

On today’s show, Paul will be speaking to us about his work at Child Justice as well as his other advocacy work on behalf of abused children and share insights from both cautionary and success tales, strategies and recommendations for how we can strengthen our laws and update our practices to ensure that children’s safety is a priority over abusers’ parenting rights.

During our conversation, Paul and I referenced the following links and articles:

• The "It's Normal to be Normal" child sexual abuse study
• The book, The Sociopath Next Door
• The book, The Witch-Hunt Narrative: Politics, Psychology, and the Sexual Abuse of Children 
• The passing of House Congressional Resolution 72 which places child safety as a priority in child custody cases
• The Holt v. Holt case in Maryland where the abusive Air Force Colonel father won custody over the children and ignored evidence of abuse
• An illustration of Child Justice's phrase: "It's Worse to Accuse than it is to Abuse" in the Holt case:  Failure To Protect: Air Force Handling Of Colonel's Child Sex Assault Charges Raises Questions
• The Nicholas Bala study that shows that the rate of father's reporting false abuse is 16x higher than mothers
• Joan Meier's (of DV LEAP) research on how courts view allegations of domestic abuse, child abuse or child sexual abuse
• The use of "junk science" or "Parental Alienation" theories by abusers as a defense against allegations of domestic violence or child abuse
• Resources that address how "Parental Alienation" is used to discredit allegations of abuse in custody cases
• The use of the Frye/Daubert standards to challenge the admissibility of "parental alienation" in courts as an attack against abuse allegations
• Dr. Daniel Saunders' DOJ report on Child Custody Evaluators’ Beliefs About Domestic Abuse Allegations: Their Relationship
  to Evaluator Demographics, Background, Domestic Violence Knowledge and Custody Visitation Recommendations
• Deborah Epstein's research on how judges misunderstood survivors in court in her paper:  "Discounting Credibility: Doubting the Testimony and Dismissing the Experiences of Domestic Violence Survivors and Other Women"

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