Unmasking a Serious, Hidden Epidemic

The Dangerous Injustice of Our Family Courts

There is an epidemic raging through our country. It is a very different kind than to which this term usually applies. It is a social and cultural phenomenon rather than a strictly medical one, though it bleeds over into being that as well. It is hidden and twisted from view, masked by dangerously corrupt judges, their underlings, and terrible abuses of “legal” means. But the harm it is doing to a large number of families, primarily to children and mothers, is tremendous.

The harm actively contributes to the destruction of families, to forcible child transfers for cash, and in extreme cases, even to actual child trafficking. It contributes to the anxiety, depression, and other forms of mental illness plaguing our country, leading to much unnecessary suffering. And all too often, it is the kind of harm that has contributed to the child suicide epidemic and to a widespread culture of violence and trauma.

Even I, a well-traveled, experienced clinician who has worked with refugees, asylum seekers, prisoners, and victims of violence, with many years of teaching at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Law School, and now at Harvard Medical School and Columbia University, was not aware of this epidemic in the Family Courts until it struck my family personally. When it strikes, you can understand why you did not know about it until now: entering Family Court is like being carried into a concentration camp, where due process cannot reach and human rights no longer…