Welcome back. We’ve been discussing the difficult spot that victims of domestic violence and abuse are put in when they’re accused of failing to protect their children. As we mentioned in the previous article, people in abusive relationships are often viewed as abusers themselves, because they aren’t making an effort to protect their children. And yet it simply doesn’t work that way for victims of domestic violence. Not that CPS cares about parents.

CPS is quick to assume the worst about parents!

If a CPS worker believes a parent isn’t protecting their child from an abusive spouse or partner, they’re quick to remove that child, and even quicker to push for a termination of parental rights. So be aware that even if you aren’t doing anything to hurt your child, failing to protect them from your partner or spouse is viewed as being equally bad!

One parent’s abuse charges can mean charges for the other parent too!

In many cases, when a someone is charged with abuse or neglect of a child, their children’s other parent (or their live-in partner) is charged with Failure to Protect. This tends to happen when one parent or caregiver is accused of intentionally harming or neglecting a child. CPS then assumes that the other parent knew about the abuse or neglect, but chose not to step in and protect the child.

CPS likes to pit parents against each other during investigations!

CPS workers act as if it’s perfectly normal for every parent to know everything that the other parent is doing, all the time, which is ridiculous! It’s even more preposterous when you think about cases where the allegations of abuse are false, and so a parent would have no idea about the alleged abuse because it never happened. However, CPS likes to split parents up and pit them against each other. It’s an effective way to ensure that a parent can be labelled ‘unfit’ without ever having done anything wrong!

How can it be failure to protect when they had no idea?

Don’t misunderstand. We know that there are situations where one parent knew that the other parent was harming a child. Whether this means turning a blind eye to molestation, or ignoring the repeated signs of physical injury, we know it happens, and it’s heartbreaking. However, there are just as many (if not more) instances where parents had no idea that their partner was harming their children. In these cases, Failure to Protect charges are ridiculous. How can you protect a child when you had no idea they were in danger to begin with?

Don’t let CPS make a tough situation even worse for you!

Being charged with child abuse or child neglect in Michigan is a very serious crime! And as you can see from the details in this article, you don’t even have to hurt a child yourself in order to be charged with this crime. But the penalties are severe, and the risk of losing your children is high! So if you or a loved one have been accused of child abuse, call The Kronzek Firm at 866 766 5245 today, and talk to one of our skilled child abuse and neglect defense attorneys! We are here to help you.