Failure to Protect: An Oklahoma Child Abuse Law Treats Women Differently Than Men

Date:  06-10-2020 60 Minutes segment found that 15 women who were never found to have abused their children have received harsher punishments than the man who did

From 60 Minutes: Eighteen years ago, Oklahoma adopted a law designed to stop child abuse. It's commonly known as "Failure to Protect" and on paper, it makes perfect sense. Any parent or guardian who knows a child is being abused and fails to protect the child can be charged with a felony and sent to prison. But in practice, Oklahoma's courts and prosecutors have treated women differently than men under the failure to protect law. We found more than a dozen cases in which mothers who were never found to have abused their children were given much harsher punishments than the men who did. Half of those women were victims of abuse themselves. Continue here.