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Cynthia Moreno

Mrs. McCann

English 1302.201

5 March 2022

The Unfairness in Custody Battles

The battle over child custody has long been a problematic and controversial topic. This is

because it is common for a judge to rule that the mother should have custody over their child due

to their “motherly nature”, which is stereotypical, unfair, and in some cases even a big mistake.

Judges also disregard the mother’s background and tendency to be abusive towards their child, so

when courts rule that children should stay with their mothers, they are placing the children in an

unhealthy and abusive environment. Furthermore, fathers are told to pay child support, and while

the money is intended to provide for the children’s needs, there are cases in which the mothers

use the money to buy other things that do not help the children. This is a problem that has been

occurring for a long time. Researchers collect and discuss information regarding unfair decisions

made by courts when giving parents custody over their children.

To begin, the topic of unfair decisions during custody battles has been around for a long

time, maybe even when courts began taking custody cases. Many factors contribute to the

decisions made in court. For instance, a judge can lean more towards giving custody of a child to

the mother because she is a woman. This is the case for many court cases involving the custody

of children. Furthermore, these decisions are unfair towards the father, who should have a fair

and equal chance to convince the judge that he is a better guardian and candidate for the custody

of his child. For these reasons, the paper will discuss the unfairness of past cases, other factors
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that go into decisions making or determining the choice made by judges, and solutions to prevent

any inequalities.

1. Unfairness of Past Cases

As previously stated, the tendency of courts to decide that the mother is the most suitable

guardian is because they are more commonly believed to be good caretakers. According to Luiza

Lopez Franco Costa, et al., authors of the article “Gender stereotypes underlie child custody

cases”, “the belief in women’s “natural superiority” with regard to child-rearing frequently

served as a legal argument for the award of sole custody to mothers” (548). This is an idea that

Joyanna Silberg and Stephanie Dallam, authors of “Abusers gaining custody in family courts: A

case series of over turned decisions”, agrees with. Usually, since the court’s thought process is

that women have a superior caretaking nature compared to men, they will more than likely rule

towards allowing the woman custody.

This, in some cases, may also occur after a woman makes abuse allegations towards the

father of the child and brainwashes a child into thinking that they are correct. This syndrome is

referred to as Parent Alienation Syndrome, also known as PAS. Psychiatrist Richard Garner, a

professional mentioned by Silberg and Dallam, describes the syndrome as “a disorder that arises

primarily in the context of child custody disputes [. . .] results from a combination of

programming (brainwashing) [. . .] indoctrinations and child’s [. . .] contributions to [. . .]

vilification” (142). This enables parents to lie in court and take advantage of their children in

order to gain custody. They also state the likeliness of the father being accused of molesting the

children more often than the mother (142-143). Similarly, Joan Meier, author of the journal

article “Child Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Parental Alienation and Abuse
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Allegations”, speaks out on the infirmity of cases where both a parent and their child/children

fabricate evidence against the other parent and accuse them of abuse.

These factors contribute to the unfairness of the court’s decisions, whether it is because

they are biased and give custody to one gender over the other, or because a parent is accused of

abuse by the other parent and their children, even though it might not be true. Of course, these

are not the only factors that aid in decision making. They are just some of the more defining

factors and get parents the custody over their children that they desire.
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Works Cited

Costa, Luiza Lopez Franco, et al. “Gender stereotypes underlie child custody decisions.”

European Journal of Social Psychology 49.3 (2019): 548-559.

Jutchenko, Ashley R. “Parental Mental Illness: The Importance of Requiring Parental Mental

Health Evaluations in Child Custody Disputes.” Family Court Review 56.4 (2018):

664-678

Martinez Pampliega, Ane, et al. “Custody and child symptomatology in high conflict divorce: an

analysis of latent profiles.” Psicothema (2021).

Mathy, Nicole M. “A 30 Years of Research Survey of Child Custody Evaluations Practices.”

American Journal of Family Law, vol. 34, no. 4, 2021.

Meier, Joan S., et al. “Child custody outcomes in cases involving parental alienation and abuse

allegations.” GWU Law School Public Law Research Paper 2019-56 (2019).

Ngaosuvan, Leonard, et al. “Improving Custody Dispute Negotiation: Empirical Testing of the

Equality Principle.” Family Court Review 58.4 (2020): 1049-1060.

Ngaosuvan, Leonard S. “The equality principle: Splitting the difference in custody disputes.”

Family Court Review 56.4 (2018): 583-596.

Silberg, Joyanna, and Stephanie Dallam. “Abusers gaining custody in family court: A case series

of over turned decisions.” Journal of Child Custody 16.2 (2019): 140-169.

Turkat, Ira Daniel. “Why Judges Should Not Permit Child Custody Evaluations.” American

Journal of Family Law, vol. 34, no.4, 2021.

Wertheimer, Julie, and Richard L. Wiener. “Custody Judgements, Ex-offender Parents, and Best

Interest of the Child.” Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy 20.1 (2020): 230-263.