Fitch, M. E. (2023a, May 28). High conflict: Is Connecticut’s family court system ignoring abuse? Connecticut inside Investigator. https://insideinvestigator.org/high-conflict-is-connecticuts-family-court-system-ignoring-abuse/
Cases involving sexual abuse, physical abuse, personal injury, and emotional abuse often result in severe, long-lasting damage to vulnerable individuals navigating the justice system. According to this investigative report from Connecticut Inside Investigator, the state’s family court system was systematically ignoring and enabling domestic violence in “high-conflict” divorce cases, leaving protective mothers and their children trapped in dangerous situations. The tragic 2019 murder of Jennifer Dulos led to the 2021 passage of “Jennifer’s Law” recognizing “coercive control” as a form of abuse, and now hundreds of women have formed support groups like CT Protective Moms to navigate a judicial landscape they describe as corrupt and biased. The article details how a historical shift toward shared parenting and fatherhood initiatives, combined with financial incentives for court-appointed professionals, has created a culture that prioritizes parental contact at all costs, even when a father has a documented history of violence. Mothers allege that when they report abuse, their claims are frequently met with skepticism or countered by unscientific accusations of “parental alienation,” a legal strategy used by alleged abusers to claim the mother is maliciously brainwashing the child. As a result, protective parents are often subjected to immense legal fees from litigation, threatened with jail time, or forced to send their traumatized children to costly, unregulated “reunification therapy” with their abusers. Despite efforts to legislate change, victims report that a lack of oversight for Guardians ad Litem (GALs) and judges, along with a “pro-contact culture,” continues to allow abusers to weaponize the family court system to exert enduring psychological, physical, and financial control over their ex-spouses and children.