Mothers Who Fail to Protect Their Children from Sexual Abuse: Addressing the Problem of Denial

Date

2015

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Yale Law & Policy Review

Abstract

In Part I, I discuss the psychological phenomenon of denial and how it prevents mothers from intervening to protect their children from intrafamily sexual abuse. In Part II, I examine an emerging trend in courts and legislatures to impose criminal liability upon parents who condone child abuse by their partners. I analyze how these statutory and common law regimes apply to mothers in denial. In Part III, I suggest how the law should deal with mothers in denial. I argue that mothers who are genuinely in denial about the abuse of their children should not be criminally prosecuted in all instances. Rather, they should be offered the choice of participating in psychiatric treatment programs in lieu of prosecution. This approach, I argue, is the most beneficial for the child and the mother.

Description

Keywords

denial, mothers, child sexual abuse, courts, criminal liability

Citation

Adams, C. (2015). Mothers Who Fail to Protect Their Children from Sexual Abuse: Addressing the Problem of Denial. Yale Law & Policy Review, 12(2), 519-539.

DOI