Stop Legalizing Incest: The Failure of the Court System to Protect Children

By Barry Goldstein, NOMAS Task Group on Child Custody. District Attorney Bill Delahunt put together a group of best practices from the late-1970s to the mid-1990s that dramatically reduced domestic violence, particularly homicides.  Bill understood that incest was far more common than most people realized and included a special office to respond to this heinous […]

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The Safe Child Act: The Best Interests of a Child in a Rational World

Barry Goldstein, NOMAS Task Group on Child Custody. IT IS THE POLICY OF THIS STATE THAT PROVIDING A SAFE, HEALTHY, STABLE AND NON-VIOLENT ENVIRONMENT FOR THE CHILD SHALL BE THE COURT’S PARAMOUNT CONSIDERATION. As far as I know, the above language is not the law, nor the standard practice of custody courts in any state […]

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What Does Domestic Violence Have to do with Shared Parenting?

Barry Goldstein, NOMAS Task Group on Child Custody. Domestic violence became a public issue at a time when virtually no scientific research was available.  This led to the implementation of many practices that are harmful and biased against direct victims and their children.  Today we have a specialized body of scientific research which includes what […]

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Parental Alienation Syndrome: The Hoax that Hurts Children

Barry Goldstein, NOMAS Task Group on Child Custody Richard Gardner did not rely on any research to concoct his theory of Parental Alienation Syndrome.  Instead it came from his personal experiences, beliefs and biases.  His outrageous bias is demonstrated by many public statements to the effect that sex between adults and children can be acceptable.[1] […]

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Practices that Risk Children Baked into Court Procedures: 20 Routine Practices that Endanger Children

Barry Goldstein, NOMAS Child Custody Task Group Protective mothers are angry that custody courts so often place their children in danger.  Many believe that only corruption can explain the frequency of risky decisions.  At the same time no judge wants to hurt children leading the judicial establishment to respond defensively to criticism.  Research confirms that […]

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What is Fair for Children of Abusive Men?

by Jack C. Straton, Ph.D. I want to express my deep gratitude to Ellen Pence, Madeline Dupre, Jim Soderberg and the others from the Duluth Domestic Abuse Intervention Project for giving me this opportunity to speak with you. The State of Minnesota should be proud that, quite literally, the world looks to this program for […]

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Serious Health Consequences to Children Witnessing Domestic Violence

by Barry Goldstein New Research Requires Changes in Custody Court Practices Starting with the ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) study in 1998 medical researchers have established the enormous and long term harm to children from being exposed to traumatic events such as witnessing domestic violence and direct physical or sexual abuse.  The research establishes that there […]

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Why the Official Rejection of PAS Matters

by Barry Goldstein There have been a lot of stories recently about the release of the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) which contains all of the officially recognized mental health diagnoses. The “fathers’ rights” groups that were created to support male supremacy and the cottage industry of lawyers and mental health professionals […]

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Custody Courts Need to Expand Sources of Information in DV Cases

by Barry Goldstein A few years ago, the Canadian Institute of Health hired me to help review grant proposals about gender, violence and health. I participated in a meeting in Ottawa with a few dozen researchers and representatives of organizations that use this research. It was an amazing discussion because all of the participants were […]

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The Mirror Solution to Child Sexual Abuse

by Barry Goldstein The Pennsylvania Attorney General is now following-up by investigating some of the people who helped Jerry Sandusky continue to molest boys long after he should have been discovered and stopped. A recent news report described a meeting between the young man known at the Sandusky trial as victim #1, his mother and […]

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