Women’s Aid raises concern about lack of understanding about impact of coercive control on children

Sun, 24 Jul, 2022 - 20:00

Ann Murphy

Assessors carrying out “voice of the child” reports in family law cases appear to lack understanding of coercive control and the dynamics of abuse, according to Women’s Aid.

The agency made the claim in a submission lodged with the Department of Justice as part of the consultation process on
parental alienation.

The submission said the Section 32 process — commonly referred to as “voice of the child” reports — “is not fit for purpose and is causing real harm to children and to women”.

The submission added: “Section 32 assessors are naming Parental Alienation when there is domestic violence/coercive control that they do not identify.

"Assessors do not appear to have appropriate training, lack understanding of coercive control and the dynamics of abuse.”

The submission added that the family law system should recognise that children have opinions and a right "for that opinion to be listened to”.

And it said: “It is also important that listening to children in proceedings about them becomes a reality in Ireland and that children’s voices are not discounted, but amplified.”

Women’s Aid voiced concern about the use of parental alienation in family law:

Parental Alienation is an extremely dangerous and damaging concept, which should have no place whatsoever in the Irish Family Court or Child Protection systems.

The submission argued that successful use of parental alienation claims by an abuser could result in a child ending up in their custody, “and remove or severely limit the presence of the protective parent, strongly increasing the risk of harm”.

Meanwhile, a submission from Men’s Aid also focussed on the Section 32 reports, and called for consideration of providing sufficient qualified child safety assessors in family law courts “to provide free reports where domestic violence or child abuse is present”.

The submission says the assessors should be qualified and have expertise in the dynamics of coercive control and parental alienation/dangerousness.

The agency also recommended that empirical research be carried out on the area of parental alienation.

Parental alienation generally refers to a process through which a child becomes estranged from a parent as the result of the psychological manipulation of the other parent.

Parental alienation may also refer to situations where one parent is wrongfully influencing their child or children against the other parent.

The consultation process was announced in May by the Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee, with a deadline of June 24 for submissions.

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