The Best Interests of the Child?: The Cultural Defense As Justification for Child Abuse

Abstract

The windchill was twenty degrees, and she was dragged kicking and screaming out into the cold. She was left there, with minimal clothing, to make a point and force her coopera- tion.1 Later, she was held for hours without food and water and was not even allowed to go to the bathroom until she com- plied with the task prescribed to her.2 According to her tor- mentor, compliance was the only option to avoid further de- grading treatment.3 What could easily describe the treatment of an enemy combatant in Guantanamo Bay is shockingly the story of a young American girl raised by her first-generation mother in the United States.4 What is more shocking is that the mother is also a tenured law professor at one of the country’s most prestigious law schools.5 With more knowledge regarding the interactions between the country’s laws, customs, and culture than most United States citizens, she should have know that her actions crossed the line, especially considering that she was born and raised in the United States and not in China and the Philippines like her family.6 Instead, she selectively included those anecdotes in a memoir about raising her children in the United States according to her Chinese heritage. Her story is not unique.