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You Are Not the Father: The Need to Terminate the Parental Rights of Rapists to Protect Victims and Children
Author(s) -
O'Dea Christina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
family court review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.171
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1744-1617
pISSN - 1531-2445
DOI - 10.1111/fcre.12594
Subject(s) - conviction , law , psychology , criminal conviction , criminology , political science
Twenty‐seven of fifty states require a criminal conviction to terminate the parental rights of a rapist. If a rape results in pregnancy and a woman chooses to carry that pregnancy to term, she may be subjected to fight her rapist in court over the parental rights of the child. In 2015, Congress passed the Rape Survivor Child Custody Act to incentivize states to lower this standard to “clear and convincing evidence.” This Note proposes that this Act be adopted by all fifty states to universally lower the standard of proof required in these cases.