Allegations Of Domestic Violence Research Articles

Heads of Neighborhood and Citizen Performance Evaluation on Domestic Violence Allegations in Disabled Children

Rukun Tetangga (RT) and Rukun Warga (RW) which functions to serve residents at the policy of the Village or Sub-District Government based on the Presidential Decree of the Republic of Indonesia No. 49 of 2001 concerning Structuring Village Community Resilience Institutions or Rukun Tetangga. This policy is to assist the Village/ Kelurahan in providing services and population administration directly to residents. The purpose of this study was to determine and evaluate the duties of the Head of RT/RW in the Campago Guguk Bulek Village, Mandiangin Koto Selayan, Bukittinggi, related to social problems of residents (children with disabilities and their families), which were pushed to the court to become a criminal matter. This research uses qualitative and descriptive methods. The results showed that the Head of RT/RW in the Campago Guguk Bulek Village, Mandiangin Koto Selayan, Bukittinggi provided assistance to two children with disabilities who were suspected of having experienced domestic violence (KDRT) by their grandmother and aunt, but not according to existing regulations. namely the Bukittinggi City Regional Regulation Number 11 of 2016 concerning Community Institutions in the Village Keywords: policy, neighborhood association, deliberation, evaluation, public service

The Interplay between the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and Domestic Violence

When a mother commits an international child abduction, even if she is fleeing domestic violence perpetrated by the left-behind father, she is bound to face complicated return proceedings under the 1980 Hague Child Abduction Convention. Such mothers are particularly vulnerable; apart from the costly, cross-border proceedings they face, if the court issues a return order, they risk returning to the abusive setting they fled from. This article explores avenues for safeguarding the protection of abducting mothers in return proceedings. The authors provide a range of potential avenues for improving the standing of the abducting mother fleeing domestic violence, including judicial and legislative interventions. The article delves deeper by considering the interplay between international child abduction law and international refugee law in cases involving domestic violence allegations. Particular emphasis is given to Article 20 and the growing instances of mothers defending return orders on asylum grounds pursuant to Article 20 and the flowing human rights implications. The authors point out a niche area for further research: the interplay between domestic violence and asylum claims.

Identifying and managing evaluator biases in parenting plan evaluations

AbstractPsychologists and other professionals are often appointed by the courts to assist families in resolving post‐separation disputes and to assist judges in making orders on behalf of the best interests of the child(ren). Although these evaluations provide valuable information to the court, they require assessing areas of human behavior that are imprecisely defined or lacking professional consensus. As parents separate, their disputes may become more challenging, and they may act in uncharacteristic and unpredictable ways. Families that cannot solve their own challenges outside of court often show high levels of conflict and/or have issues that are extremely complex, including domestic violence allegations, resist‐refuse family dynamics, and relocation requests. Evaluators and judges, being human, tend to oversimplify complex issues due to the limitations of the human brain. Evaluators are subject to cognitive biases that result from the use of mental heuristics, leading to shortcuts and errors in their reasoning and judgment. Other biases, such as implicit and explicit cultural biases, often influence evaluators' reasoning and conclusions. This article explores various biases that affect and potentially diminish the quality of an evaluator's work. We conclude by addressing “de‐biasing” strategies that can reduce, but not negate, the risks associated with such biases.

Redressing the balance: how Australia’s approach under the Hague Abduction Convention is still endangering victims of domestic violence

Abstract This article explores how Australian courts consider allegations of domestic violence under Article 13(1)(b) of the Hague Convention on Child Abduction. As is now well known, there has been a paradigm shift since the Convention’s introduction, which has seen the circumstances and underlying reasons for international child abduction change. Through an examination of Australian case law from the past 5 years, this article reveals the issues that taking mothers continue to face in Australian return proceedings and the concerning reality that the courts continue to prioritise a prompt return over the safety and well-being of women and children exposed to domestic violence. This is despite feminist legal scholars and activists demonstrating for over 20 years that domestic violence is not being adequately dealt with in return proceedings and calling for change. The article discusses how the huge inequality in legal representation for taking mothers and left-behind fathers adds to the imbalance in these matters. Unfortunately, the recent Hague Conference Guide to Good Practice in such cases is unlikely to affect any substantive change to redress that imbalance. Suggestions for ways to redress the balance between taking mothers and left-behind fathers are suggested.

Gender Bias in Cross-Allegation Domestic Violence-Parental Alienation Custody Cases: Can States Legislate the Fix?


 
 
 “Parental Alienation Syndrome” (PAS), developed by Dr. Richard Gardner in 1985, posits that a frequent dynamic in child custody disputes involves vengeful mothers falsely convincing their children that they have been sexually abused by their fathers. Although PAS is widely discredited and courts have ruled it inadmissible, new formulations of the theory, such as Parental Alienation (PA), continue to play a dominant role in custody proceedings. Proponents of PA assign the label to a broad range of custody cases in which children favor one parent and reject the other. However, despite the seemingly more gender-neutral framing of PA, empirical research shows that courts use PA to discredit mothers’ allegations of domestic violence and abuse and justify custody switches away from the mother. This Note analyzes the gender bias in family courts’ handling of custody cases involving cross-allegations of domestic violence and PA, and then proposes four legislative provisions aimed at reducing the effects of such bias in custody proceedings.
 
 

Family Court Responses to Claims of Parental Alienation in Quebec

Abstract An increasing number of cases of parental separation involve high conflict and claims that a parent is alienating a child. This study analyzes reported family law cases involving claims of parental alienation in Quebec between 2017 and 2020 (n = 164). Bivariate analyzes were undertaken to establish correlations between family characteristics (child's age, safety issues concerning the children and parents, severity of the parental conflict, child's age, allegations of domestic violence and child abuse) and court decisions. Judges made a finding of parental alienation in a minority of cases where a claim of alienation was made, and in more than a quarter of cases did not resolve the claim. Issues of family violence were raised in about a quarter of the cases where alienation was an issue. The courts rarely dismissed a claim of violence and made a finding of alienation. The most common outcome of all cases was a continuation of the status quo, with a custody reversal in only a few cases (n = 7). Mothers were more often alleged to be engaging in alienating behaviour, but there is a lower rate of judicial substantiation of alienation against mothers, and the study did not find evidence of gender bias. Judicial findings of alienation were associated with substantiation by a child custody evaluator or the child protection service. Only a small portion of cases resulted in orders psychosocial interventions. The authors argue that courts, agencies professionals need to better address issues of parental alienation and family violence.

Domestic Violence Alleged in California Child Maltreatment Reports During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, reports to child abuse and neglect hotlines have dropped significantly across the United States. Yet, during this same period, calls to domestic violence hotlines have increased. The purpose of this study was to examine if there have been measurable changes in domestic violence-related reports to child abuse and neglect hotlines. Using administrative child protection records from California, we plotted counts and proportions of child maltreatment reports with and without domestic violence allegations before and through the onset of school closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. We used an interrupted time series analysis to evaluate whether or not there was a change in domestic violence allegations in child protection reports corresponding to the COVID-19 pandemic. We document that during the first two quarters of 2020 there was a 14.3% drop in the overall number of child protection reports. Despite a decline in maltreatment reporting overall, there was a 25% increase in the proportion of reports with allegations of domestic violence. Our findings suggest both the count and composition of reports to child protection agencies were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The current analyses also showcase the seasonality of CPS reports generally, and reports with DV allegations, specifically.

False Allegations of Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Analysis of Ex-Partners’ Narratives

False Allegations of Domestic Violence: A Qualitative Analysis of Ex-Partners’ Narratives

Intersection between Domestic Violence and International Parental Child Abduction: Protection of Abducting Mothers in Return Proceedings

Abstract The focus of the article is on the intersection between domestic violence and parental child abduction, in particular, the interpretation of the Article 13(1)(b) ‘grave risk of harm’ defence in cases involving allegations of domestic violence by the abducting mother against the left-behind father, and on the protection of such abducting mothers in return proceedings. The content of the article is divided into two substantive parts. The first part explores the courts' approach to the grave risk of harm exception to return in circumstances where allegations of domestic violence have been raised. The second part of the article examines the courts' approach to protective measures, including undertakings, in child abduction cases involving allegations of domestic violence. The article engages extensively with the work of the Hague Conference on Private International Law and the EU in the area of international parental child abduction, as inter alia, it explores the problem of effectiveness of protective measures with reference to the 1996 Hague Convention on Jurisdiction, Applicable Law, Recognition, Enforcement and Co-operation in Respect of Parental Responsibility and Measures for the Protection of Children and the Regulation 606/2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters.

Domestic violence and inter-country child abduction: an Indian judicial and legislative exploration

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction aims to prevent the abduction of children by their parents by ensuring the child's prompt return to his/her place of habitual residence. At the time of drafting the Convention, the drafters believed that non-custodial parents who were fathers perpetrated most of the abductions. However, the current statistics reveal the overwhelming majority of all abductors as primary or joint-primary caretakers. Unfortunately, it is unknown what exact proportion of these situations includes abductions triggered by domestic violence. In the absence of an explicit provision of domestic violence against spouses as a defence against an order of return, for a parent who has abducted a child to escape domestic violence, the relevant defence is of “grave risk of harm” to and “intolerable situation” for the child under Article 13(1)(b) of the Convention. However, the lack of guidance on what constitutes “grave risk” and “intolerable situation”, at least in the past, and its operationalisation in the context of domestic violence brings in pervasive indeterminacy in child abduction. In 2012, the Hague Conference on Private International Law identified “domestic violence allegations and return proceedings” as a key issue and recommended steps for developing principles on the management of domestic violence allegations in return proceedings leading to the adoption of a Good Practice Guide on this issue in 2020. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) and the Ministry of Law and Justice, India, cite that most Indian parents who abduct their children happen to be women escaping domestic violence abroad. Thus, they are victims escaping for themselves and their children's safety. This research has summed up the judgments delivered by High Courts and the Supreme Court of India on child abduction between 1984 and 2019. Through judicial mapping, the paper discusses the cases in which battered women have highlighted and argued domestic violence as a reason against their children's return. The paper evaluates whether the reason given by the two ministries against India's accession to the Hague Convention is reflected in cases that have come up for judicial resolution and what are the criteria evolved by the judiciary in addressing the concerns of domestic violence against a spouse involved in child abduction. The paper analyses India's legislative initiative, the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction Bill, 2016 and assesses the measures proposed by the Bill for considering domestic violence against a spouse in abduction cases.

Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law: Why Wife-Beaters Are Awarded Child Custody in China's Divorce Courts

Domestic violence allegations are pervasive in divorce petitions filed by women seeking to divorce their husbands in China's courts. In China, formal legal protections against domestic violence are unimportant to the judges who decide the fates of women seeking their help. Women who flee marital violence often lose their children in the divorce process to the men who abused them because victims of domestic violence are far less likely to have physical possession of their children. When determining child custody, judges are supposed to consider the best interests of children. In practice, however, their impulse is to preserve the status quo. By tending to grant child custody to the parent who has physical possession of the child, judges reward the bad behaviour of perpetrators of domestic violence, punish victims of domestic violence who are forced to escape their abusers, and jeopardize the safety of the very women and children whose interests they are responsible for protecting.

Interpersonal Violence Against Children and Adolescents: A Forensic Study From Greece

To investigate differences in victimization of minors after allegations of domestic violence and community violence. This retrospective study was conducted by reviewing the archive of clinical examinations after allegations for interpersonal violence against minors that were performed at the Department of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology of our Medical School from 2012 to 2016. 216 cases of allegations for victimization of minors' were referred to our department, representing 8.8% of all clinical forensic examinations. Boys community violence victims were affected mainly on the head, whilst girls mainly on the genital area. Upper limbs were the predominant site of injuries on domestic violence victims of both sexes. Adolescents were in greater danger of sustaining injuries than younger children. Upper limb injuries may prove to be a useful screening tool for domestic violence in school-age children and adolescents, while trunk injuries may indicate domestic violence in preschool children.

The interpretation and application of Article 13(1) b) of the Hague Child Abduction Convention in cases involving domestic violence: Revisiting X v Latvia and the principle of “effective examination”

A key interpretation and application issue in the scheme of Article 13(1) b) of the Hague Child Abduction Convention is whether judges should investigate first the merits of the defence before considering whether protective measures are adequate or whether they should first consider the adequacy of protective measures. There is no generally accepted international practice nor is there clear authority on the appropriate or preferred approach. This article argues that judges should always undertake an effective examination of the allegations of domestic violence first before considering whether, if there is merit to the allegations and they are substantiated, adequate protective measures can sufficiently ameliorate the grave risk of harm.

The Family as a Stronghold of State Stability: Two Contradictions in China’s Anti-Domestic Violence Efforts

China’s first Anti-Domestic Violence Law that took effect in March 2016 is widely praised as progress against the malfunction of public power in the area of domestic violence allegations in an ingrained patriarchal society. However, empirical research points to the first contradiction in judicial practices, namely, the informal and flexible mechanism of judicial mediation that is the norm in domestic violence cases. The victims’ rights and safety are harmed under the political requirement of ‘saving and repairing the marital relationship’ or ‘maintaining social harmony.’ Facing this weakness of the judiciary and public power, Chinese civil society has been increasingly engaging in various forms of anti-domestic violence advocacy and has achieved considerable success inside and outside the courtroom. Nevertheless, in this context, the authorities have escalated repression and suppression of the anti-domestic violence advocacy amid its efforts of further suppressing civil society in general. Based on the analysis of these two contradictions, this article argues that the apparent contradictions reflect the inherent coherence of deploying law as an instrument serving for political ends in an authoritarian context. Alongside the intensifying tension in these two contradictions is the further setback to reform and the shrinking of the space for civil society activism.

Conclusion: international best practices

ABSTRACTThree approaches presented at the International Symposium on Contact Disputes and Allegations of Domestic Violence – Identifying Best Practices offered the possibility of overcoming the limitations identified in the preceding papers in this special issue. A human rights framework, trauma-informed practice and integrated services taking a whole-of-family approach can all help to achieve cultural change in contact proceedings and to ensure the availability of the resources needed to address the issue of domestic abuse holistically. Four Australian initiatives are described as examples of trauma-informed practice and integrated services: Legally Assisted Family Dispute Resolution (LAFDR), the Family Safety Model (FSM), the Family Violence Courts Division of the Victorian Magistrates Court (FVCD), and the Family Advocacy and Support Service (FASS). FSM and LAFDR are out-of-court initiatives which aim to address a family’s abuse-related needs before they get to a court. The FVCD and FASS pick up families whose cases have entered the court system, and at that stage attempt to offer a wrap-around service which addresses both legal and non-legal needs. Lastly, the article describes the European human rights framework, which is designed to operate in cases which are ultimately adjudicated by a court.

Introduction: contact and domestic abuse

ABSTRACTThis article introduces the special issue of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law on contact disputes and allegations of domestic abuse. It first describes the aims and findings of the International Symposium on Contact Disputes and Allegations of Domestic Violence – Identifying Best Practices at which the papers in the special issue were originally presented. It then outlines the position in England and Wales regarding allegations of domestic abuse in child arrangements cases, highlighting the difference between the ‘law in the books’ and the ‘law in action’. Thirdly, it discusses the research evidence on another prominent international approach to domestic abuse allegations – legislative presumptions against custody or unsupervised visitation/contact for abusive parents. The experience of presumptions in the USA and New Zealand suggests that a similar gap between ‘law in the books’ and ‘law in action’ exists, together with potential problems of legislative drafting. Finally, the article outlines the contributions of the other papers in the special issue to our understanding of international approaches to ensuring safety for children and resident parents in family proceedings where allegations of domestic abuse are raised.

Specialised domestic violence courts in Canada and the United States: Key factors in prioritising safety for women and children

ABSTRACTThis paper reviews the response of specialised domestic violence courts in Canada and the United States to contact disputes where there are allegations of domestic violence. It begins with a discussion of legal reforms responding to domestic violence in Canada and the United States, including the different types of DV courts and their rationales, key features, merits and drawbacks. Evaluations of Integrated DV courts in the United States and Canada are then reviewed. The research shows that although IDV courts hold more promise to deal with contact disputes given their inclusion of family law matters, there are few studies analysing the impact of IDV courts on these disputes, and some suggest these courts may actually increase contact and hence the potential for safety issues to arise. The final section discusses the strengths and weaknesses of IDV courts in relation to contact disputes, identifying the factors that make these specialised courts more or less successful in prioritising safety and minimising harm for women and children.

What Happens When There Is Presumptive 50/50 Parenting Time? An Evaluation of Arizona’s New Child Custody Statute

ABSTRACTThe current study presents the findings of an evaluation of Arizona’s 2013 revisions to the child custody statutes that directed courts to “maximize” the child’s parenting time with both parents. A state-wide survey of the four family law professions (i.e., conciliation court staff, judges, mental health providers, and attorneys) assessed their perceptions of the law 4 years after implementation. We averaged the ratings across the four professions to obtain a comprehensive perspective that gave equal weight to each profession. Results revealed that the law functions as a rebuttable presumption of equal parenting time; that it is evaluated positively overall and in terms of children’s best interests; that it is has a neutral impact on legal and interparental conflict; and that it has led to small increases in allegations of domestic violence, child abuse, and substance abuse.

Family Violence and Proving Grave Riskk for Cases under the Hague Convention Article 13(b)

In The Hague Convention on Child Abduction is intended to address and deter wrongful removal and retention of children. Cases under the Convention now often raise issues under the “grave risk” Article 13(b) exception to return. The Convention emphasizes summary resolution of cases and an approach of judicial “self-denial,” avoiding an inquiry into the child’s “best interests.” However, when family violence issues are raised, a court must consider and assess the risks faced by children. Children exposed to domestic violence may face grave risk if returned, even if not direct victims. However, the domestic violence is a “differentiated phenomenon.” The fact that there may have been some acts of domestic violence does not preclude an order of return, but the court rather must assess the nature and serious o the acts, the likelihood of their recurrence and the adequacy of the protection that can be provided in the jurisdiction of the child’s habitual residence. Child sexual abuse allegations, especially involving young children and the context of parental separation raise challenging issues that are often best resolved in the jurisdiction of child’s habitual residence, where the most evidence is available, provided that the child can be adequately provided upon return. The paper provides some legal and social context for the consideration of Hague Child Abduction cases raising issues of “grave risk” based on allegations of domestic violence and child sexual abuse.

The Challenge of High-Conflict Family Cases Involving a Child Protection Agency: A Review of Literature and an Analysis of Reported Ontario Cases

Child protection agencies (CPAs) are increasingly becoming involved in high conflict custody and access cases. High conflict cases often involve a number of dynamics that place children at risk of harm. Allegations of domestic violence (DV), child abuse, and alienation are common in high conflict cases. This paper reviews of the limited research available on domestic family law cases that intersect with the child protection system. The second part provides an analysis of information obtained from 210 reported cases from Ontario 2010 to 2015 involving custody and access disputes where a report was made to a CPA. The paper concludes by offering observations about high conflict custody and access cases that intersect with the child protection system, and suggestions for future research.