Feisty Aphrodite Archives
Abused Women See Danger in Family Court
The following is from the article written by Alison Bowen and is the latest from the series "Dangerous Trends, Innovative Responses" published by Women's eNews:
Susan Lob says it's simple: Good mothers should keep their children.
But Lob, director of the New York-based Voices of Women Organizing Project, says that doesn't always happen in the New York family court system when it's women who have been abused by their children's fathers.
Instead, in a report released today [May 8], Voices of Women says family courts retraumatize battered women by forcing them to confront men they fear and granting custody to abusers 37 percent of the time despite the women's roles as primary caregivers.
"What struck us was the impossibility of women losing custody to the men who abused them," said Lob. "That just seemed unbelievable."
The group laid out four recommendations: fund an independent court watch project to enforce procedures; ensure that court decisions protect children and reflect their best interest; take abuse allegations seriously and hold abusers accountable; and ensure that court proceedings are fair and just.
"The courts' own rules and regulations are often not followed," Lob said. "Those kinds of things just seem so blatantly unfair and unreasonable."
Authors issued specific suggestions for each of the four recommendations, including increasing accountability for judges by halving 10-year judicial appointments to five-year terms and seeing children in courtrooms at least once a year to ensure custody decisions are benefiting them.
"All of this is done for the best interest of children, and we feel like children are not being represented," Lob said.
Lob said the court system turns their allegation of abuse against women making the accusation, who are sometimes painted as unreliable or unfit due to emotional problems.
The mothers they surveyed are not perfect parents, Lob said, but they were primary caregivers who were not accused of endangering their children. Courts, she said, should protect abused women who want to protect their children.
The report, "Justice Denied: How Family Courts in NYC Endanger Battered Women and Children," says 7.5 percent of cases in family court focus exclusively on domestic violence. Most cases, 55 percent, involved child support; 26.5 percent involved custody or visitation; and 6.5 percent involved child protective proceedings. Up to half of cases in family court involve some aspect of domestic violence.
The report represents two years of interviews with around 75 domestic violence survivors, focus groups of battered women and teens in foster care, and meetings with court personnel.
Read the entire article here.
