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Gender and child custody outcomes across 16 years of judicial decisions regarding abuse and parental alienation

Author

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  • Harman, Jennifer
  • Giancarlo, Christine
  • Lorandos, Demosthenes
  • Ludmer, Brian

Abstract

There have been legislative efforts to control how child custody decisions are handled in family courts where allegations of abuse and of parental alienation (PA) are levied. The “findings” reported to support such legislation have been based on one unreviewed study with identified methodological issues (Harman & Lorandos, 2021). We tested six pre-registered hypotheses to determine whether there is empirical support for the “research findings” used to support these laws. Five-hundred PA cases were sequentially selected from 4,889 Canadian trial court decisions. Independent coders who were blind to the hypotheses coded all cases for details about custody and allegations of abuse. We failed to find support for the “findings” that have been used to support legislative changes. For example, this study focused only upon cases where PA was determined to actually have occurred in at least one of the children in the family. It differs from Harman & Lorandos (2021) in that this study found that alienating mothers’ claims of abuse against known “abusive” alienated fathers were not being discredited more often than they were for alienating fathers. The negative impact of failing to base legislation on a comprehensive consideration of the full scope of scientific evidence available (e.g., Kayden’s Law in the reauthorized Violence Against Women’s Act, 2022) is discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Harman, Jennifer & Giancarlo, Christine & Lorandos, Demosthenes & Ludmer, Brian, 2023. "Gender and child custody outcomes across 16 years of judicial decisions regarding abuse and parental alienation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:155:y:2023:i:c:s0190740923003833
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107187
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