Parental Alienation And Domestic Violence

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“I hate you!” Most mothers have heard this at least once, as an expression of anger, not sincerity. However, a few children direct undeserved rage at previously cherished parent due to a derogatory campaign from the other parent. Parental alienation is the term used to describe behaviors, chiefly during high conflict divorce, of one parent to coerce his child into cruelty against the targeted parent for reasons not based in reality. Because this is such a complex subject, this essay will focus on only some of the tactics alienating parents employ to vilify the other parent, creating a loyalty conflict for their child, then attempt to explain some possible motivations or causes of such behavior.
The most common and potent technique of propagating …show more content…

This is a very serious action and absolutely devastating for the targeted parent. A judge will automatically order immediate no contact until the claim can be investigated. The investigation is potentially damaging to the child, depending how exhaustive it is. A lot of professional that work with these types of conflict have training or experience, hence they can spot the difference in behaviors between an alienated child and an authentically abused child. The behaviors are fundamentally dissimilar. While physical abuse and sexual abuse are generally thought of as clear examples of child abuse, it is important to recognize that the effects of neglect, emotional abuse, parental substance abuse, and exposure to domestic violence can be just as damaging. The danger of these kinds of abuse is that they tend to be more difficult to identify due to the absence of physical evidence. Because of this, family members and members of the community may not always be as inclined to pick up the phone and call in an abuse report, despite the fact that it tends to be equally as damaging. Also, protective and enforcement agencies have a tendency not to carry these claims forward as they are not considered life threatening. The other extreme measure some parents will attempt is relocation without knowledge, also known as kidnapping. Stories of this …show more content…

Arguments state that proper authorities are “likely to misunderstand the experience and minimize the problem (i.e., say that the children will figure it out and come running back in no time) or encourage the targeted parent to take actions that could be quite unhelpful (i.e., taking a ‘wait and see’ attitude)”. Meanwhile, the child is deprived of a relationship with the healthier parent and grows up with a very dysfunctional role model, missing out on many developmental experiences. Because this is one of the most severe forms of emotional abuse, it is likely that these children will develop mental illnesses. Some will become alienators themselves. In my view, the term 'parental alienation' incorrectly identifies the target parent as the

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