I just read an interesting letter in which John Hemming urged the UK government to stop punishing women who are victims of domestic violence by taking their children away.
A recent UK government report revealed that “51.1% of women who have had their children removed had it done so in part because they were victims of domestic violence.”
At first, I figured that taking the kids out of a violent home makes sense. It will protect the children from the emotional pain of watching their mother suffer from abuse. Also, the abuser could begin abusing the children. I figured that, if the mother wants to keep the children, then she needs to get away from the abuser permanently. For the children’s sake, we cannot leave them in an abusive home.
But the author of the letter made a good point. He pointed out that victims of domestic abuse may not report it if they think the government will take away their children. That makes sense.
So what do we do? Do we take children away from mothers who live in abusive homes or who date someone abusive? What about mothers who make a habit of dating abusive people?
In some cases, dealing with the abuser may solve the problem altogether. In the other cases, I think the solution depends on the circumstances. Some abused mothers may not do enough to protect their kids, and I want the kids taken away from those mothers. Once we have dealt with the abuser, some abused mothers may take care of their children as well as any other person. Then I say let them keep their children. Perhaps increasing supervision of abused mothers would help, but then we need to make acceptable standards for determining when to take the kids away and when not to take them away.
What do you think?
Sunday, March 29th 2009 at 2:25 pm
In a perfect world women would have enough self respect and courage not to become involved with abusers. Some women love those “bad boys”. I am more concerned about the children and pets of women who love these guys. If they want to be abused that’s their choice but they should not bring innocent children and pets into the situation. How many times do you hear about the “boyfriend” or ex-husband killing the child or pet to further hurt their woman. There, unfortunately, is no easy answer but I believe the innocents should be protected.
Saturday, March 15th 2008 at 9:39 am
In the United States also.
What would you do?
Sugar and spice and everything nice.
This is suppose to every little girls life.
What happens when life is not like that?
What if your life is filled with constant abuse by the people who suppose to protect you?
For little Katelynn of Indiana, her life is filled with this from a father, stepmother and father’s family; everyone but her the relatives that love her have been deined the ability to see her.
What happens when the police will not stop this?
Than try Child Protection Service, but they will not stop this either.
The next thing to do is go to the court.
What would you do if the Child Protection Services and the court helped the abusers hurt her?
The media might work but they ignore majority of average people.
In this search for help, several politicians ignored or said stop bothering them.
If these people will not help little katelynn than who will?
Will this little girl have to pay the ultimate price for these adults mistakes?
NoW….what will you do?!
This is Indiana’s Shame & these are Teardrops for Katelynn
Petition for Justice for Katelynn:
http://www.gopetition.com/online/5918.html
Saturday, March 8th 2008 at 12:08 pm
What I think is that the institution of parenting is a fucked up authoritarian system of indentured slavery, and that we need to find a way to get rid of it. That I think would be the greatest Anarchist challenge of all times.
The other thought I have is that in a government v families dispute, I think we should take the families’ side and let them keep their children. Children having to go through the government system are in a really bad shape and go through a lot of hardships.
The root of the problem is that a lot of people simply should not have children, and we should not encourage them to have children!