What Considerations does Safety Include? Safe Child Act by Barry Goldstein

by Barry Goldstein

Last month my article was about legislation needed to stop custody courts from routinely sending children into the custody of dangerous abusers. My meeting with a state legislator led to her request that I prepare a proposal that would be the basis of legislation to reform the broken system. I would like to thank Toby Kleinman for her assistance in drafting this proposal. Immediately below will be my proposal for a Safe Child Act and I will then discuss why I think this would make a difference. You are most welcome to post or otherwise use this proposal and this article in support of efforts to reform the system. In fact I hope many people will take the proposal for a Safe Child Act and ask their legislators to sponsor it. 

Safe Child Act 

Purpose: Improve the Safety of Children involved in Child Custody Cases  



What Considerations does Safety Include? 

We frequently see unqualified court professionals deny or minimize domestic violence allegations because “he didn’t beat her bloody.” or assume there is no further risk because the parents are separated. These are just some of the common mistakes routinely made by custody courts that rely on professionals without domestic violence expertise. This law would more specifically define both domestic violence and safety so that practices based on this ignorance would be illegal. 

The proposal defines safety to include not only direct physical assault, but also situations that have been shown to encourage children to engage in behaviors that undermine their safety. It specifically mentions separating children from their primary attachment figure which increases the risk of depression, low self-esteem and suicide as well as witnessing domestic violence which interferes with children’s developmental process and often leads to a wide variety of harmful behaviors when older. If the purpose is to protect children’s safety, these risks must be avoided. 

The proposal also provides a more accurate definition of domestic violence which is important because so many court professionals don’t know how to recognize it. We specifically state that domestic violence is not limited to physical assaults, but rather includes a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviors. This would force courts to look at important examples of domestic violence such as emotional, psychological, and economic and litigation abuse. It also includes isolating and monitoring behaviors. The emphasis of patterns and the purpose to control and coerce are designed to stop practices in which the victim hits back in self-defense or frustration and unqualified professionals treat this as if it were domestic violence. 

We often see unqualified court professionals try to frame issues to include safety despite no research to support this concern. Aside from the fact that alienation has become an abuser’s tactic to distract attention from more important issues, we certainly do not want to encourage alienating behaviors. Genuine alienating behavior, more commonly practiced by abusers is certainly harmful to children, but there is no research that it poses safety issues. In other words issues like domestic violence and primary attachment have a greater impact on children, but the courts have paid much more attention to alienation allegations than safety issues. 

Recognizing primary attachment as a safety issue should create a fundamental and positive change in the courts’ response to custody cases. We often see courts minimize an important benefit for children because of the expectation mothers will provide most of the child care. In some cases courts unconsciously favor fathers in an attempt to balance the advantage mothers have by virtue of their stronger relationships with the children. Understanding how primary attachment impacts safety should result in different outcomes. 

Abusers would have to explain to a court what unusual circumstances would justify increasing the child’s risk of depression, low self-esteem and suicide. Issues like financial security, alienation and even most of the mental health diagnoses we see from unqualified psychologists would not justify the risk. I would expect the extreme cases in which mothers are limited to supervised or no visitation because they continue to believe the fathers are abusive would receive close scrutiny because the courts would be required to emphasize safety concerns. 

Even if a judge or other court professional wants to distort some research to treat alienation or other similar tactics as if it was a safety issue, the law specifically prevents it by giving examples of the kinds of common issues unqualified professionals have used to undermine children’s safety. Indeed evaluators and other professionals used by the courts for advice would be disqualified if they continue to use unscientific approaches.