Dateline disappoints – Balance sorely missing in cases involving child abductions

I posted a link to an article from Time previously that stated 68% of child abductions involve domestic violence. So  I wonder why the media neglects to mention that abuse (whether domestic violence, child abuse, or child sexual abuse) IS actually a reason why women flee:

Protecting abducted kids: Rethinking the Hague Convention 

Instead they have been given an incredible amount of media time (Goldman got a 2-hour special) to fathers like Goldman, McCarty, and Savoie.

By the way, Savoie wrote the comments below (unless it’s an imposter). For anyone familiar with the Men’s Rights Activists (MRAs), you’ll recognize the reference to the cherry-picked and limited research findings listed on Fiebert’s Web site:

 

Christopher Savoie

The below bibliography examines 275 scholarly investigations: 214 empirical studies and 61 reviews and/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners

“Selective reporting is in the eye of the stereotyping knee jerking man hater, I guess.”

Men are supposed to grin and bear it.  And not retaliate.  Retaliate once and lose your children forever in court.  Yeah, there is asymytry but asymytry that is unfairly biased against men.  Women can kill their husbands and children and the jury won’t even convict them…

This is who the media is giving publicity to?

Now, Savoie was not on Dateline last night, but he is one of the fathers that has been getting a lot of media attention. McCarty was on Dateline last night. His wife abducted their child to Italy because she believed the father sexually abused the child. Oddly, this woman was quite capable (TV talkshow host, mother & wife) up until she fought for custody. Then the courts found she was paranoid, had a personality disorder, and had mood swings. Two points here: How did she suddenly become unfit? Do they realize a woman who believes (whether true or not) a father sexually abused their child will likely sound paranoid and suffer mood swings?

 

They’re going to highlight Goldman’s case next.

 

Why aren’t they telling the stories of all the women fleeing abusive situations (the 68% of the Hague cases)????

 

I wrote an email to the station and the producer Mary Ann Rotondi and she did send me a very brief reply indicating she’d be willing to consider a case that involved domestic violence. I seriously hope she does so — it’s not just fathers suffering from children being abducted (and indeed, women also face further abuse and murder).   

 

I sent a letter to the editor regarding Goldman’s huge publicity (back in December) that was published in the Trenton Times:

 

“During a recent trip home, visiting family for the holiday, I read The Times of Trenton.  I was surprised to see how much media attention has been given David Goldman, who recently gained custody of his son.   And I couldn’t help but wonder why there are thousands of battered women who lose custody for every one man whose child has been abducted, yet we lack a voice in the media.  Battered women comply with absurd court orders, go to jail rather than turn their child over to an abuser, or flee the country altogether. Children are injured, abused or killed every day.  Real human beings, after being battered, show up to court seeking justice and receive anything but.  The Leadership Council on Child Abuse and Interpersonal Violence estimates that 58,000 children a year go into unsupervised or joint/sole custody with abusive parents.  Why can’t we get their voices heard and leave Goldman alone so he can rebuild his life?”
 

EDIT- 68% of child abductions involve women – many of whom are fleeing domestic violece (I wrote 68% of abductions involve domestic violence – sorry about that. )

In the news: Custody Catastrophes

This case comes from Australia, where they’re having plenty of problems with the Fathers Rights Movement. This case demonstrates how access is becoming far more important than safety:

Girls ordered to spend weekends with sex offender father

A COURT has ordered two young girls to spend weekends with their sex offender father provided he puts a door on their bedroom they can lock.

Judge Robert Benjamin, in the Family Court’s Hobart branch, ruled that the girls “need some protection from (their father), particularly at night”.

However, the risk of sexual abuse was “diminished when they are awake and alert”.

Judge Benjamin said that the father, who was convicted of downloading child pornography, must have an “adult friend” stay with him when the girls stayed overnight.

He added that until the youngest turned 14, the girls must “share the same room so they can have the mutual support of one another”.

A Family Court counsellor said that the girls, aged ten and eight, “are at an age and maturity when awake, dressed and together it would be unlikely the father would act inappropriately toward them”.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/girls-ordered-to-spend-weekends-with-sex-offender-father/story-e6frfkvr-1225840653601#ixzz1GWv0gRMU

This case involves an American girl taken to Malaysia by her father. A domestic violence survivors advocate asked: Why wasn’t this mother’s case covered like fathers’ cases are (Goldman, Savoie, etc.) ?

 

‘Abused’ American girl, 11, reunited with mum

PETALING JAYA – An 11-year-old American girl, who claimed she was constantly abused by her Malaysian father, was yesterday reunited with her mother and is set to begin a new life in Indiana, United States.

The girl and her mother, a 28-year-old restaurant worker in Indiana, cried uncontrollably outside the Court for Children here when they were reunited after six years yesterday.

The mother was flown in here by the US embassy after the plight of the girl reached the courts last week.

For the past six years, the mother had been under the notion that she would never be able to see her child again. The girl was listed as “abducted” in the US.

I”ve posted an article before that stated 68% of child abductions involve domestic violence – I’ll repost it again after this article.  

Mothers make case against Hague Treaty

According to the participants, the women talked about their reasons for returning to Japan, and brought their children with them, claiming they made the move because of domestic violence.

After the meeting, one woman told reporters she began to find inexplicable bruises on her child after her ex-spouse’s visitations. She said her child asked to be taken to Japan.

“If Japan were to sign the Hague Convention . . . (my child would) be forced to live with an abusive father and be exposed to violence again,” the woman said. “And I will become a (declared) criminal.”

The Hague Convention aims to promptly return children illegally taken out of their country of “habitual residence” by a parent.

Rethinking the Hague Convention

…research indicates that 68% of the abducting parents in cases under this treaty are mothers — and that many of them are fleeing abusive spouses

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2036246,00.html#ixzz1GWzJxNn5