Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is not light reading. Sociologist Neustein and attorney Lesher have written a shocking indictment of the U.S. Family Court system. After studying over a thousand cases, they find a clear pattern of abuse by the system itself, directed against sexually-abused children and the parents who try to protect them.

Many people are already stunned by the systemic abuse of children--and the coverups--revealed in the Catholic Church scandals. This one is a thousand times worse. It's not just a few bad eggs, it's the whole egg farm. All across the country, corrupt judges are handing sexually-assaulted children over to the very people who abused them, every day. It's a policy. They get away with it because they do it in secrecy, often calling the protective parent (usually the mother) "crazy" despite a total lack of evidence against them... and frequently in the face of strong, substantiated evidence against the abuser, which they ignore. Like the Church.

It's unbelievable. Yet it really is happening, maybe to someone you know. Neustein and Lesher document it thoroughly and calmly, in full academic form (with 30 pages of footnotes and 10 pages of references at the end). There is no "hysteria" here; the facts speak for themselves. Read it... then go out and change it. The last three chapters tell you how. Our children need us to restore integrity to the Family Courts.

Buy it now, while you still can. The first printing is almost sold out, and detractors from New York with their own special agendas are trying very hard to suppress it. Don't let them win.

Amy Neustein and Michael Lesher have written an important book which exposes a scandal in our family and divorce courts. It is a scandal that is well-known to victims and advocates trying to help them. The authors studied over 1000 cases in which alleged sexual abusers of children are granted custody and the protective mothers receive supervised visitation. They chronicle the kinds of mistakes which create such outrageous outcomes. The scandal has become so widespread because of the secrecy the courts promote and the blame the victim strategy so often encouraged in the courts. If you look at individual cases the abuser has successfully denigrated the protective mother so that a casual reader or journalist can believe that there was something wrong with the particular mother that created such an extreme outcome. When you study large numbers of cases as the authors have done, however, it becomes apparent that the fault is not with the mother but with the system. The same mistakes are made repeatedly by judges, lawyers, law guardians, mental health professionals, child protective workers and other players in the system. The authors' contribution is to help us see this pattern of abuse in the courts. The media have been willing to publicize individual cases but have failed in their obligation to expose the pattern. If the custody courts reformed their practices to stop making children live with abusers it would do more to reduce crime then every crime bill passed in our lifetime. This book shows the mistakes that are made that cause outrageous results. The same mistakes are made in other child abuse and domestic violence cases. There are thousands of these Custody-Visitation Scandal Cases throughout the country. This book is an important start to making the public aware of the scandal and the harm it causes. I hope the national media will end its timidity and go after this critical story.

As the previous reviewer stated, I too have not read this book.....yet. I wish to comment to the 'unknown' reader that did not read this book. I did indeed do as they suggested and followed a google search and found the statement allegedly written by her daughter Sherry.

I could not, however, verify it was indeed written by her. The web site could have been written by anyone claiming to be her. Funny thing about the website that hosted this claim, it's a web site, badly organized I may add, that is pro-joint custody in the state of New Hampshire.

Amy did not enjoy joint custody.

Family courts all over the United States fall short in protecting our children everyday. This is a fact. My own son was not protected by the court system. There was no sexual abuse involved in my case, and no physical abuse, but there was emotional abuse involved that I could not protect my son from.

The family courts I sought relief from were of no help.

I will read this book. I will at that time decide whether this book has merit. I suggest you do the same.

I met Amy Neustein briefly, and didn't sense a woman 'seeking fame' as the badly presented un-authenticated statement of her daughter, "speaking out" claims.

I did not realize how bad the court system is in America until I read this book. I recommend this book to anyone that cares about the safety of our children. After I read the book, I was able to see how many problems mothers face dealing with child protective services. The entire court system must be changed in order to help children. This book helps explain how to help correct the problems. It has truly inspired me to encourage a "Children's Bill of Rights" to be enacted.

Good read, lots of insight and facts. If you have been through the courts you will relate.

And now based on the emotional pleas of some you are ready to accept whatever you read as the gospel truth. If you look at the votes it clearly shows that anyone who supports the authors views is credible and anyone who disagrees is guilty/villified or found not relevant.
I rest my case, this is being decided not on evidence but based on what the "automatically sainted" mother says. it couldn't ever be possible that some of these women could not be the mothers they paint themselves to be? Mothers are not saints, as evidenced by the millions of babies who are aborted in the U.S. and elsewhere. People need to quit believing whatever is said just because its a female / mother saying it.

Thus is a controversial book for two reasons: 1)the subject is inherently controversial; 2) the author admits to using the book to influence parties to her own ongoing struggle with her family and the law. Family Court handling of abuse accusations is indeed an important topic. Yet, like another contentious treatment of the topic, the documentary, Breaking the Silence, the authors undermine their own position through overbearing tendentiousness. In reality, measured, thoroughly argued, discussions are the ones that can bolster a position; not the sort of sloppy logic and wild-shot rhetoric employed here.
Here are three examples of distortion and ommission that serve to illustrate the larger pattern of the book:
1) page 4: the Aylsworth/Marks case, a familiar one, is related, only the fact that Judge Goldberg's decision was based on a finding that the children had been coached to tell fabricated stories. Whether or not, Goldberg's finding was accurate, whether or not her custody decision was wise, it is neverthless incumbent on whomever tells the story to tell it truly. Why would our author avoid the central issue of the case being discussed: coaching vs. truth?
example 2) page 186: John Gill's book, Stolen Children (1981), the first book to be published on parental kidnapping, is cited, stating that Gill it "chronoicled how mothers cope with the loss of their children to the other spouse." No, the book is about the phenomenon of parental kidnapping as it applies to mothers, fathers and children as well as others, plus many other aspects of the issue. Gill himself is a pioneering activist and the father of a child kidnapped by a mother. Why would an author present such a distorted picture of a subject (Gill's book) that doesn't even further the author's argument?
Example 3) page 20: Famous Undergrounder Faye Yager is cited as an important authority. She is described as having been subject to "disadvantages" due to her "high profile," namely beingh sued by fathers (including those of children even the kidnapping mothers never claimed were sexually abused). It is not mentioned by the authors however, that the sole criminal trial Yager faced was brought not by a father but by a mother, who accused Yager of child abuse and kidnapping (Yager was acquitted). Yager is presented as "a successful entrepeneur," married to a "family doctor." The doctor part is true; the other, well, not really. According to available accounts, the doctor Yager married was the physician of the boyfriend who committed suicide that she had met while they were both incarcerated in a mental instution. This was her second boyfriend to commit suicide (Yager had herself attempted suicide twice). By the way, why not mention that her first husband (prosecuted successfully)and her "lover" (suicide # 1) were indeed child sexual abusers? Yager stories by Harpers & Life are to be found: (http://nafcj.org/HarpersFaye.html) (http://nafcj.org/junodfaye.htm)
These examples are not exceptions. Whatever important facts the book may contain -- and I'm sure it does include such -- are utterly buried beneath the overriding tendentious rhetorical devices. This book is necessary reading (critically) for specialists in child custody issues. A note to editors: check facts!

I confess I have not read this book but have read statements by the daughter, Sherry, who Amy Neustein claims was abused by her father. Sherry has stated that the alleged abuse never occurred and that this book is a pack of lies about her and her father. A Google search to find out more might be worthwhile before you consider buying this book.