Study finds abusers use parental alienation to gain contact with children

Earlier this month a study exploring the emergence and development of parental alienation (‘PA’) in England and Wales was published in the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law. The study conducted by Dr Adrienne Barnett of Brunel Law School at Brunel University London found that parents in particular estranged fathers  with an alleged or proven history of domestic abuse can use PA claims to discredit mothers and gain parenting time with their children.

I wanted to have a closer look at this. Unfortunately I have not been able to read the full study as it is not freely available online so I have had to make do with a brief abstract and a couple of news reports. 

Alienation cases examined 

The abstract explains that the study “considers the background into which PA first appeared in private law proceedings concerning children in England and Wales and examines how it progressed in the case law through the changing political and discursive context of private family law from 2000 to the end of March 2019.” To be precise Dr Barnett examined all 40 reported and published private family law judgments in England and Wales...

Read the full article here.