Development of a Framework for Identifying and Explicating the Context of Domestic Violence in Custody Cases and its Implications for Custody Determinations
BWJP has been invited to apply for a grant from the Office on Violence Against Women for a demonstration project to develop a framework to guide custody and visitation decisions in cases involving domestic violence. Research on custody and visitation determinations provide troubling evidence that procedures currently in use in family courts often fail to identify, contextualize and account for the occurrence of domestic violence in these cases, and if identified, its presence seems not to consistently affect the court’s recommendations regarding custody or visitation arrangements.
Through this project, staff of BWJP and our project partner, Praxis International, will build on previous multi-disciplinary efforts to address this issue by bringing together representatives from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), and leading researchers and practitioners, to determine how the crafting of custody orders and parenting plans could more effectively address the safety issues related to domestic violence, child abuse/neglect and child sexual abuse.
To address these safety concerns, the project will develop a new framework with accompanying tools and recommended procedures which will make visible to the court:
- the presence and context of domestic violence that is being or has been used;
- the extent of harm caused by the violence and related abuse;
- the implications of the abuse for each parent’s capacity and inclination to act in the best interest of the children in key parenting domains, such as: 1) the physical care and safety needs of the children, 2) the socialization and education of the children, and, 3) the emotional and psychological development of the children.
The desired outcome of this project is to provide family courts with a process by which the violence occurring in these families is made visible, its context and the related safety issues are more clearly understood, and as a result, its implications for custody and parenting plan arrangements can be taken into account more effectively to protect the emotional and physical well-being of the litigants and their children.
The project will be funded for two years and is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2009. More details on project implementation will be posted after activities are initiated this summer. |
