From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from the

From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from the Family Courts -- and What Can Be Done about It (New England Gender, Crime & Law)
- Used Book in Good Condition
In this astonishing book, sociologist Amy Neustein and attorney Michael Lesher examine the serious dysfunction of the nationâ€™s family courts -- a dysfunction that too often results in the courtsâ€™ failure to protect the people they were designed to help. Specifically, the authors chronicle cases in which mothers who believe their children have been sexually abused by their fathers are disbelieved, ridiculed or punished for trying to protect them. All too often the mother, in such a case, is deemed the unstable parent, and her children are removed from her care, to be placed in foster care or even with the father credibly accused of abusing them.

Employing a special form of sociological inquiry known as ethnomethodology, they show how judges, private attorneys, law guardians, child protective service caseworkers and court-appointed mental health experts on a day-to-day basis collaboratively produce a closed and claustrophobic family court setting that makes practical sense to the systemâ€™s practitioners -- but looks like madness to everyone else. They also describe the social interactive work of mothers trapped inside the system. Faced with judicial rulings that seem to violate their most basic parental values, these mothers litigate furiously, take their stories to the press, go on hunger strikes, or turn fugitive with their children through a modern-day â€œunderground railroad.â€

From Madness to Mutiny offers an overview of family court malfunction and the parental mutiny that results from it. The authors outline the new legal landscape that makes the madness possible and show how the system has failed to react to severe criticism from media and legislators. And they discuss ways to reform the family courts, with the goal of transforming them from instruments of punishment to true institutions of justice.
Country USA
Brand Northeastern University Press
Manufacturer Northeastern University Press
Binding Paperback
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781555536565
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	Northeastern University Press
Manufacturer	Northeastern University Press
Binding	Paperback
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781555536565
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from the Family Courts -- and What Can Be Done about It (New England Gender, Crime & Law)

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