Library|Parental Alienation Syndrome

Articles	The Evidentiary Admissibility of Parental Alienation Syndrome: Science, Law, and Policy Jennifer Hoult, J.D. Since 1985, in jurisdictions all over the United States, fathers have been awarded sole custody of their children based on claims that mothers alienated these children due to a pathological medical syndrome called Parental Alienation Syndrome (“PAS”). Given that some such cases have involved stark outcomes, including murder and suicide, PAS’s admissibility in U.S. courts deserves scrutiny. This article presents the first comprehensive analysis of the science, law, and policy issues involved in PAS’s evidentiary admissibility. As a novel scientific theory, PAS’s admissibility is governed by a variety of evidentiary gatekeeping standards that seek to protect legal fora from the influence of pseudo-science. This article analyzes every precedent-bearing decision and law review article referencing PAS in the past twenty years, finding that precedent holds PAS inadmissible and the majority of legal scholarship views it negatively. The article further analyzes PAS’s admissibility under the standards defined in Frye v. United States, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Kumho Tire Company v. Carmichael, and Rules 702 and 704(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence, including analysis of PAS’s scientific validity and reliability; concluding that PAS remains an ipse dixit and inadmissible under these standards. The article also analyzes the writings of PAS’s originator, child psychiatrist Richard Gardner—including twenty-three peer-reviewed articles and fifty legal decisions he cited in support of his claim that PAS is scientifically valid and legally admissible—finding that these materials support neither PAS’s existence, nor its legal admissibility. Finally, the article examines the policy issues raised by PAS’s admissibility through an analysis of PAS’s roots in Gardner’s theory of human sexuality, a theory that views adult-child sexual contact as benign and beneficial to the reproduction of the species. The article concludes that science, law, and policy all support PAS’s present and future inadmissibility.
Articles	PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME: A PARADIGM FOR CHILD ABUSE IN AUSTRALIAN FAMILY LAW Dr Elspeth McInnes This paper argues that the absence of a publicly funded investigative capacity in the Family Court of Australia when there are allegations of child abuse by a parent, creates the conditions for the de facto operating presumption of the Parental Alienation Syndrome paradigm in the courts. This paradigm, at its simplest, insists that claims of serious child abuse are invented and that children’s statements and manifestations of fear are the outcome of parental coaching. Without a publicly funded professional child protection investigative service available to inform the family court, the private adversarial system of family law commonly fails to substantiate allegations of child abuse, thereby systematically producing the outcome that child abuse allegations will be deemed to be false. Safety for children in family law proceedings who are subject to abuse depends on access to a professional investigative service to inform the court, and a redefinition of a child’s best interests in the Family Law Act to give safety the highest value.
	PARENTAL ALIENATION SYNDROME IN FAMILY COURT DISPUTES By Prof Carolyn Quadrio The Parental Alienation Syndrome is one that is sometimes invoked in Family Law Proceedings. It is said to explain false allegations made by one parent against another – usually the allegations refer to sexual abuse of a child and usually it is the mother who is said to be alienating the children from the father. This paper will review the syndrome as defined by Gardener and its utility or otherwise in legal proceedings and will also review the issue of false allegations of sexual abuse and the credibility of children making disclosures. The author has many years experience preparing family assessments for the Family Court and many of these involve allegations of sexual abuse.
	PARENT ALIENATION SYNDROME REVISITED Dr Lois Achimovich Next Step Youth Drugs and Alcohol Services, WA Paper presented Those attempting to come to grips with the issue of child abuse in the context of determination of contact and residency issues are not operating in a social vacuum. When I began psychiatry 35 year ago, sexual abuse was not on the agenda. Wives did not get battered - and if they did, they deserved it. Physical abuse of children had only just been recognised in 1962 and Kempe was shouted down when he presented his first paper. My awakening with regard to the sexual abuse of children came as late as 1985 when I was the family therapy consultant to an inpatient unit. Three girls came in with parasuicidal behaviour. Over the weeks they were in hospital, each disclosed that her father was having sex with her - the word abuse in this regard was not regular currency. I remember shock and disbelief. How could I have missed this for so many years. Why hadn’t patients told me? Did they give me clues I’d missed? And more importantly why aren’t our professional organisations shouting from the rooftops that this is happening?
	Dr Richard Gardner's Autopsy The Bergen County (New Jersey) Medical Examiner reported that Dr. Richard Gardner died a gory, bloody and violent death - from his own hand. Gardner took an overdose of prescription medication while stabbing himself several times in the neck and chest. Gardner plunged a butcher knife deep into his heart. The medical examiner removed the knife from Gardner's chest and listed the stabbing wounds as the cause of death.
	ARE CHILDREN PROTECTED IN THE FAMILY COURT? A PERSPECTIVE FROM WESTERN AUSTRALIA Suzanne Jenkins Despite a landmark High Court judgement in the area of child sexual abuse allegations (M and M, 1988), the major concern in such cases seems to be the fear that mothers use false accusations against fathers as ‘weapons’ in custody and contact cases. This paper seeks to examine the validity of such views as they apply to Western Australia. In particular, it examines the belief that false accusations are rampant; the questionable nature of ‘parental alienation syndrome’, the belief that young children’s accounts of abuse lack credibility, and the ignoring of the effect of abuse itself on the nature of a child’s testimony. The paper argues that the principle of ‘protection of the child’s best interests’ should not necessarily be equated with the child having access, even supervised access, with a parent previously accused of having abused the child.
	USING A CHILD CUSTODY DISPUTE TO DISCREDIT ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL ABUSE A very disturbing disclosure from a convicted sex offender on how he used child custody to discredit molestering his three year old son and ten year old step daughter. WARNING: This material may be traumatic for survivors and protective mothers.
Books	Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis By Paula J. Caplan, Lisa Cosgrove Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis is the first book about how gender, race, social class, age, physical disability, and sexual orientation affect the classification of human beings into psychiatric categories. This is a hot topic addressed to the public's right to know, especially because the negative consequences of psychiatric diagnosis range from loss of custody of a child to denial of health insurance and employment to removal of one's right to make decisions about one's legal affairs.
	Child Abuse and Family Law By Thea Brown, Renata Alexander I have no doubt that this book will become an invaluable tool for family and children's court judges and magistrates, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, police and the many other professionals who work in this field.' The Honourable Alastair Nicholson, former Chief Justice of the Family Court of Australia A ground-breaking, comprehensive, honest, well researched and courageous book that should be essential reading for all politicians and professionals involved in both the Family Court of Australia and state child protection systems.' Emeritus Professor Freda Briggs AO Child abuse in the context of parental separation and divorce is not a malicious allegation, nor a misunderstanding. It is a real and growing problem with very young children as the primary victims. Child Abuse and Family Law draws on pioneering research to identify the causes, features and impact of child abuse in parental separation and divorce. The authors argue that professionals working with these families need to better understand the specific and often severe nature of this abuse to improve outcomes for both the children and their families. The authors develop a much-needed practice framework for all socio-legal professionals involved in the family law system. Using case studies, they take a multi-disciplinary approach to outline strategies for family lawyers, child legal representatives, social workers, child protection workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, health workers and teachers.