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According to findings published by investigators at the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center, most courts are not aware of intimate partner violence as they consider child custody in divorce or separation proceedings. Most states require family courts to consider intimate partner violence (IPV) during child custody proceedings, however, these issues to not always come to light when they are present.
The consideration of IPV in child custody cases is important because children who witness their parent being abused are more likely to be abused themselves and/or suffer emotional trauma from abuse exposure. Congress, the American Medical Association, and the American Bar Association have supported family laws which recognize these negative effects and presume it is not in the best interests of a child to be in the custody of a parent who has committed spousal abuse.
To determine the level of IPV considered in child custody proceedings when such abuse exists, Seattle researchers analyzed 856 marriage dissolution cases: 324 involving IPV and 532 not involving spousal abuse. The researchers found that women who had been abused in their marriage were no more likely to be awarded child custody than women who had not been victims of spousal abuse. Fathers who had abused their former partners were not more likely to be required to have supervised child visitation. Only 17 percent of those fathers with a “substantial” history of spousal abuse were denied child visitation. In almost half of all cases in which spousal abuse had occurred, this abuse was not mentioned in child custody proceedings.
The principle investigator of the study, Dr. Mary Kernic, estimates that over 125,000 children from households with spousal abuse are the subjects of child custody hearings every year. Through this research, investigators are hoping to show that more consideration needs to given to spousal abuse during custody hearings, such as most laws mandate.