VICTIM BLAMING: FAILURE TO PROTECT LAWS AS A LEGISLATIVE ATTACK ON MOTHERS

A mother's intuition is said to give mothers the innate ability to know exactly how to best care for their child. But what happens when a judge decides that a mother's intuition was wrong? Failure to protect cases deal with harrowing facts: an abusive parent who harms the child they are supposed to care for, a non-abusive parent who stepped in too late. The statutes allow courts to charge the non-abusive parent with the abuser's crime. The original purpose was to secure the child's wellbeing and encourage non-abusive parents to leave dangerous situations. Instead, failure to protect laws disproportionate target non-abusive mothers, holding them to an impossibly high standard of care, and removing children from a loving parent in the process. The statutes allow for mothers--who are often facing insurmountable obstacles and doing the best they can for their children--to be deprived of the very thing they are seeking to protect: their motherhood.