The [E]x Factor: Addressing Trauma From Post-Separation Domestic Violence As Judicial Terrorism

Abstract

When victims of intimate terrorism leave their abusers, the abuse rarely ends. While many victims exit intimate relationships to try to escape the abuse, for most, their bravery in leaving only angers their abusers further. Rather than lose control over their victims, many abusers continue to manipulate and terrorize their former intimate partners for years post-separation. Many use the court system, a place where victims seek justice, as a battering tool against them, engaging in what some have termed “judicial terrorism.” Remarkably, although post-separation abuse has been recognized and researched since the early 1970s, no law review article has, to date, focused entirely on post-separation abuse as an independent manifestation of domestic violence. While many legal scholars have discussed the social science evidence that victims are most at risk of physical violence or homicide when they first leave their abusers, none have described in depth the emotional and psychological abuse through which perpetrators may continue to coercively control their victims over the years and decades to follow. Indeed, the most recent domestic violence typologies have identified “intimate terrorism” as the most persistent and pernicious form of abuse. Intimate terrorists coercively control their victims, sometimes through physical violence, but always through emotional and psychological abuse. Whereas other types of domestic violence tend to cease post-separation – affirming the very reason why many victims choose to leave intimate relationships – intimate terrorism typically does not. Although the intimate terrorist may no longer have physical access to his victim after she leaves, he can continue to coercively control her through stalking, threats, and family court litigation. Importantly, post-separation intimate terrorism retraumatizes victims, preventing them from healing and building new lives; the abuser counts on his ability to continue to victimize and coercively control his victim when he no longer has the physical proximity to abuse her physically. To cast the spotlight on intimate terrorism that occurs after the end of an intimate relationship, particularly through the court system, this Article draws on research about the retraumatization experienced by crime victims who have participated in prosecuting their attackers to describe the trauma post-separation abuse victims experience in family court litigation. It then suggests areas for reform, supportive assistance, and further inquiry.