Should the children removed from mothers who are the victims of domestic violence

[no_hypocrisy]

Last edited Tue May 29, 2012, 10:02 AM - Edit history (1)

be returned to the mother after she escapes her cycle of violence or should the children be adopted?

That's the case I'm working on now. My client was both a victim of domestic violence and coercive control by her husband for more than a decade. He strangled her. She called the police. Child protection removed the children. She lost time by not being given appropriate services to help her escape from her husband but she did it on her own. She now is divorced, gained two professional vocational certificates and can raise the children as a single mother.

But child protection is claiming that she is incorrigible because she "won't take responsibility" for her husband's hitting their children. (Note: It was never established what "hitting" meant, whether it was acceptable discipline or beating, because she never saw unusual markings on her children when she bathed them, she didn't see him "hit" the kids, and the kids never told her.)

Do you agree with Child Protection that a woman who is the victim of domestic violence is forever an "unfit mother" and her children shouldn't be returned to her no matter how much she has rehabilitated her life?