Medea

May 25, 2009 Medea
By Mauricio E. Carrasco

This month, it will be five years since the last time I saw my daughter. At some point I thought this case was unique. I thought my ex had been an exceptional case of a woman that after alienating my little one and displaying total disregard for the law had gotten away with murder. Very soon I found out that some statistics near the number tohundreds of thousand children who have been separated from their fathers. This is due to what some psychologists call Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS).The ineffective judicial system is keeping some children from growing up with both their parents and even seeing them. I believe this problem is now almost worldwide. There is not an easy way to dissect this problem and its consequences on children butsome studies on psychology could shed some light on why it happens and what the effects are on the new generations. By now we know about the devastating effects on children who grow up without one of the parents and are also told negative things about the absent parent. These studies are overwhelmingly focused on children who are being or have been alienated towards the father since this is by farthe most widespread problem. Let’s start with some hard-hitting facts: - 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes {Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14 p. 403-26}. - Girls who grow up without the father have 111% more chances to become teenage mothers than those who grow up in a house with both parents {Barbara Whitehead, Atlantic Monthly Vol. 271, April 1993}.That number grows to 145% if we consider single mothers. - Children who don’t grow up with the father tend to develop low self-esteem {Martin Richards, Children and their Families: Contact, Rights and Welfare (edited with A. Bainham, B. Lindley and L. Trinder). Richard Hart Publishers, 2003.}. - 90% of the children who escape from home do not have a relationship with their fathers {U. S. D.H.H.S.Bureau of the Census}.

- 63% of minors who commit suicide don’t have a father present in their lives {U. S. D.H.H.S. Bureau of the Census}. - 85% of all children that exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes {Center for Disease Control}. - 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes {Criminal Justice and Behavior, Vol. 14 p. 403-26}. - 71% of all highschool dropouts come from fatherless homes {National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools}. - 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions come from fatherless homes {U.S. Dept. of Justice, Special Report, Sept., 1988} - 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home {Fulton County Georgia Jail Populations and Texas Dept. of Corrections, 1992}. -Children living without the father are six times more likely to live in poverty than are children whose parents are married {June 11, 1999 “How Broken Families Rob Children of Their Chances for Future Prosperity” by Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D.}. And that’s just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Children DO need both parents and they need to live in a nurturing and loving environment. Not giving them love orkeeping them separated from the parents for no real reason should be considered a crime and the children in such situations must be restored with their rights to maintain contact with both parents. Love is such an important factor that the Nazis discovered a sad fact. When they started to apply eugenics in order to create the ”perfect race”, they systematically selected and separated childrenfrom their parents. Even though the babies were taken care of they received little love and had no sense of identity. Many of these babies died. Without love humans die and children are especially vulnerable.

Artistic representation of the myth of Medea by De la Croix.

There are many cases in which fathers simply abandon their kids and never establish a constant relationship with their...