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05/07/2007 - Professor Margaret Drew commented on the recent prosecutorial trend of taking an aggressive stance toward mothers of abused children. The story, Law Puts Mothers' Duty Under Scrutiny; State Going After Moms Who Don't Stop Child Abuse was printed in The Cincinnati Enquirer, April 2, 2007.
The following is an excerpt:
"Attorney Margaret Drew, a University of Cincinnati law professor and director of the University of Cincinnati Domestic Violence Clinic, said criminal charges aren't necessarily the answer because often the women are abused themselves. ... Drew said she has noticed the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office aggressive stance toward mothers. Drew said the trend is happening across the nation, although it is unknown how many mothers are prosecuted for failing to protect their children each year. No one tracks such prosecutions. "It concerns me very much," she said. "Very often what the system fails to understand is that the mother is doing her best to protect the children." The mother's themselves are abused, Drew said. "By charging the mother, we have shifted focus to the mother for failing to protect and taken the focus off the batterer where it belongs," added Drew, the former chairwoman of the American Bar Association's Commission on Domestic Violence who is now the commission's special adviser."
Contact Information:
Sherry English
513.556.0090
sherry.english@uc.edu
