Abstract This article presents findings and recommendations based on an in-depth examination of records from 27 custody cases from across the United States. The goal of this case series was to determine why family courts may place children with a parent that the child alleges abused them rather than with the nonoffending parent. We focused on “turned around cases” involving allegations of child abuse that were at first viewed as false and later judged to be valid. The average time a child spent in the court ordered custody of an abusive parent was 3.2 years. In all cases we uncovered the father was the abusive parent and the mother sought to protect their child. Results revealed that initially courts were highly suspicious of mothers' motives for being concerned with abuse. These mothers were often treated poorly and two-thirds of the mothers were pathologized by the court for advocating for the safety of their children. Judges who initially ordered children into custody or visitation with abusive parents relied mainly on reports by custody evaluators and guardians ad litem who mistakenly accused mothers of attempting to alienate their children from the father or having coached the child to falsely report abuse. As a result, 59% of perpetrators were given sole custody and the rest were given joint custody or unsupervised visitation. After failing to be protected in the first custody determination, 88% of children reported new incidents of abuse. The abuse often became increasingly severe and the children's mental and physical health frequently deteriorated. The main reason that cases turned around was because protective parents were able to present compelling evidence of the abuse and back the evidence up with reports by mental health professionals who had specific expertise in child abuse rather than merely custody assessment.

中文翻译：

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施虐者在家庭法庭上获得监护权：一系列被推翻的决定

摘要 本文根据对来自美国各地的 27 个监护案件的记录进行深入检查，提出了调查结果和建议。这个案例系列的目标是确定为什么家庭法院可能会将孩子安置在孩子声称虐待他们的父母身边，而不是与未犯罪的父母同住。我们专注于涉及虐待儿童指控的“扭转案件”，这些指控最初被视为虚假，后来被判断为有效。孩子在法庭命令虐待父母的监护权的平均时间为 3.2 年。在所有情况下，我们都发现父亲是虐待父母，而母亲则试图保护他们的孩子。结果显示，最初法院高度怀疑母亲关心虐待的动机。这些母亲经常受到虐待，三分之二的母亲因主张孩子的安全而受到法院的批评。最初命令儿童监护或探视虐待父母的法官主要依赖监护权评估员和诉讼监护人的报告，他们错误地指责母亲试图疏远他们的孩子与父亲或指导孩子虚假报告虐待行为。结果，59% 的肇事者获得了单独监护，其余的则获得了共同监护或无人监督的探视。在第一次监护权决定中未能得到保护后，88% 的儿童报告了新的虐待事件。虐待往往变得越来越严重，儿童的身心健康经常恶化。