A Western Crisis
Broken Trust is more than a film – it’s a response. In both Sweden and the broader Western world, children are taken from safe caregivers and placed with abusers, often under the pretense of "parental alienation." This page explains the silent crisis in child protection, and why this film must be made.

In the justice systems of the Western world, a silent crisis is unfolding: children are being forced to spend time with parents they fear, often by court order. Legal scholar Joan S. Meier has shown how courts dismiss allegations of abuse and violence by invoking theories of "parental alienation," despite the lack of scientific support for such claims.

Sweden has a long and troubling history of neglecting vulnerable children.

This was brought to light in the Vanvårdsutredningen (State Inquiry into Neglect, SOU 2011:61),

where more than 800 adults testified to severe abuse suffered while in state care, abuse that

was ignored by the very institutions meant to protect them.

The inquiry led to a national apology, financial compensation, and a solemn promise

”it must never happen again.”

Concerning custody cases, the systemic failures to protect children remain largely unspoken. Courts and social services routinely fail to assess risk or listen to the child’s perspective.

Protective parents, most often mothers, are dismissed as not credible, while children’s fear and trauma are ignored or reframed as manipulation.

The focus remains on preserving the father's access, even fathers with a history of violence, or convictions for abuse, are granted access to their children.

But despite this reckoning, little has changed. Recent research underscores that this crisis is far from over.

The 2021 study “A Crisis in Swedish Child Welfare: On Risk, Control, and Trust” reveals that despite decades of reforms, Sweden’s child protection system continues to prioritize bureaucratic procedures and adult narratives over the actual safety and well-being of children. Decisions are often shaped by institutional risk avoidance rather than genuine care or trust in vulnerable families.

Revelations have emerged implicating top Swedish politicians in corrupt and unethical international adoption practices. A government inquiry led by law professor Anna Singer found that thousands of children were adopted from countries such as Chile, China, and South Korea often through fraudulent documentation, coerced consent, or complete lack of parental awareness, between the 1970s and early 2000s (theguardian.com).

In response to the inquiry’s findings, Sweden has now suspended all international adoptions, a significant policy shift in recognition of the systemic harm and ethical breaches involved.

Ongoing Betrayal of Children

Legal scholar Joan S. Meier has shown, through extensive empirical research in the U.S., that mothers

who report abuse, especially sexual abuse, are far more likely to lose custodyof their children.

Her work demonstrates how courts embrace the pseudoscientific theory of “parental alienation”

to discredit protective mothers and shift focus away from the child’s safety.

Sweden follows the same pattern.

This film project aims to shed light on the reality faced by children and mothers trapped in a cruel system, to make visible what those in power try to silence.