Ana Hickmann's ex, who was accused of domestic violence, filed for her arrest under the Parental Alienation Law on Jan. 3. Understand the strategy behind such requests. Photo: Zanone Fraissat/Folhapress
A little over a month ago, I wrote that not even a rich and famous woman like Ana Hickmann would escape the evils of parental alienation law. She had just been denounced by her exhusband Alexandre Correa. The businessman accused of domestic violence claimed the presenter prevented him from seeing the couple's nineyearold son. Now he has called for Hickmann's arrest.
The traditional press quickly reported that the reason for the arrest request was an act of parental alienation: Hickmann had refused to release the child to his father between January 3rd and 10th. Only later did they add a message from the moderator's press office, which said that an agreement had been reached with the exhusband's defense team to postpone the date.
What the press incorrectly failed to report is that the parental alienation law does not provide for prison time for those who report it, let alone the ability to request “redhanded arrest within 24 hours,” as Correa’s defense did .
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Under the law passed in 2010, those who interfere with children's psychological education by implanting false memories in order to turn them against one of their parents are considered alienators. The greatest penalty for anyone accused of parental alienation is loss of custody of the child.
The law is based on pseudoscience: Parental Alienation Syndrome. This is a false theory developed by the American Richard Gardner, which has never been recognized by the World Health Organization and has been criticized by the Federal Council of Psychology, the National Council of Social Assistance and the National Health Council. In the 1980s, Gardner produced reports defending pedophiles.
According to lawyer Cláudia Galiberne Ferreira, men accused of domestic violence like Ana Hickmann's ex and rape of a vulnerable person are trying to equate parental alienation with serious violence against children. This is the loophole for women's arrest requests filed since 2022.
This year there was a change in the law on parental alienation. There is now a provision that requires underage victims to be specifically listened to, as well as those who suffer serious violence such as rape.
Also in 2022, the Henry Borel Act was passed, making domestic and family violence against children under 14 a heinous crime. It provides for preventive detention of the defendant before the final hearing. The law was passed after the death of the 4yearold boy who was beaten in the apartment where he lived with his mother and stepfather.
Seeing parental alienation as a form of domestic and family violence, says lawyer Ferreira, is the strategy of many men to indirectly criminalize a practice that is not even recognized worldwide and to call for the arrest of women.
“It is another massacre of mothers and children who are victims of violent and abusive men,” she criticized.
The situation could get even worse with the update of the Brazilian Civil Code. A commission of lawyers was set up in 2023 to develop the new proposal.
According to Ferreira, the debate tends to include the provisions of the Parental Alienation Law in the part that deals with family law, but not to mention these words because the concept of parental alienation is not well received.
You can better understand why this law continues to exist in Brazil and how it works in the report series “In the Name of Parents.” I spent a year dealing with dozens of lawsuits filed by men accused of domestic violence or rape of a vulnerable person who accused their exwives of parental alienation.
I told these stories in 2023, exposing the injustices promoted by parental alienation law and the names of the members of the justice system who helped take children away from their mothers and give them to fathers responsible for domestic violence or even Children were responsible for rape.
The law could even be repealed if the new Civil Code were passed as intended, the lawyer explained, but mothers like Ana Hickmann and thousands of others in Brazil continue to be held hostage by abusive or mistreating exhusbands.
ALSO READ:
• AUDIOS: Judge tells domestic violence victim woman can be beaten by her husband 'but he's an excellent father'
• Rich, famous and victim of aggression not even Ana Hickmann escapes the evils of parental alienation laws
• Loss of custody, destroyed assets and a reputation for being crazy: This is what happens when mothers report fathers for sexual abuse
• Psychologists benefit from reports from parents and stepfathers who are suspected of raping children
• “The judge and the deputy forced me to let him find my children,” says the mother of children murdered by their father
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