Violenza domestica consigli per avvocati e operatori

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Quarterly E-Newsletter
Volume 4 July 2006
10 Custody Myths and How to Counter Them
Any attorney who represents clients in custody matters will recognize at least some of the
following unfounded clichés about domestic violence and custody. In any easy-to-cutand-
paste format here are some resources that the ABA Commission on Domestic
Violence provides for practitioners to use when representing victims of domestic
violence.

MYTH 1: Domestic violence is rare among custody litigants.
�� Studies show that 25-50% of disputed custody cases involve domestic
violence.
S.L. Keilitz, National Center for State Courts, Domestic Violence and
Child Custody Disputes: A Resource Handbook for Judges and Court
Managers (1997); J.R. Johnston, High-Conflict Divorce, 4 Future of
Children 165 (1994).

MYTH 2: Any ill effects of domestic violence on children are minimal and short-term.
�� “Children who are exposed to domestic violence may show comparable levels
of emotional and behavioral problems to children who were the direct
victims of physical or sexual abuse.”
Jaffe, Wolfe & Wilson, Children of Battered Women (1990).
�� Adverse effects to children who witness DV are well-documented, including
aggressive behavior, depression, and/or cognitive deficiencies.
Morrill, Dai, Dunn, Sung & Smith, Child Custody and Visitation
Decisions When the Father Has Perpetrated Violence Against the Mother,
11(8) Violence Against Women 1076-1107 (2005); Jeffrey L. Edleson,
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Problems Associated with Children's Witnessing of Domestic Violence,
(1999), available at
http://www.vawnet.org/DomesticViolence/Res...VAWnetDocs/AR_w
itness.php
�� A continuing study by the CDC has shown a significant relationship between
exposure to “adverse childhood experiences” (including witnessing domestic
violence) and development of adult health problems, including pulmonary
disease, heart disease, hepatitis, fractures, obesity, and diabetes (not to
mention IV drug use, alcoholism, sexually transmitted diseases and
depression).
http://www.acestudy.org/
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r980514.htm

MYTH 3: Mothers frequently invent allegations of child sexual abuse to win custody.
�� Child sexual abuse allegations in custody cases are rare (about 6%), and the
majority of allegations are substantiated (2/3).
Thoennes & Tjaden, The Extent, Nature, And Validity Of Sexual Abuse
Allegations In Custody And Visitation Disputes, 14(2) Child Sexual
Abuse & Neglect 151-63 (1990).
�� False allegations are no more common in divorce or custody disputes than at
any other time.
Brown, Frederico, Hewitt, & Sheehan, Revealing The Existence Of Child
Abuse In The Context Of Marital Breakdown And Custody And Access
Disputes, 24(6) Child Abuse & Neglect 849-85 (2000).
�� Among false allegations, fathers are far more likely than mothers to make
intentionally false accusations (21% compared to 1.3%)
Bala & Schuman, Allegations of Sexual Abuse When Parents Have
Separated, 17 Canadian Family Law Quarterly 191-241 (2000).

MYTH 4: Domestic violence has nothing to do with child abuse.
�� A wide array of studies reveal a significant overlap between domestic
violence and child abuse, with most finding that both forms of abuse occur in
30-60% of violent families.
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Appel & Holden, The Co-Occurrence of Spouse and Physical Child
Abuse: A Review and Appraisal, 12(4) Journal of Family Psychology 578-
599 (1998).
�� Other studies have shown intimate partner violence (“IPV”) to be a strong
predictor of child abuse, increasing the risk from 5% after one act of IPV to
100% after 50 acts of IPV.
S.M. Ross, Risk of Physical Abuse to Children of Spouse Abusing
Parents, 20(7) Child Abuse & Neglect 589-98 (1996).

MYTH 5: Abusive fathers don’t get custody.
�� Abusive parents are more likely to seek sole custody than nonviolent ones…
American Psychological Association, Violence And The Family: Report
Of The American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force On
Violence And The Family, (1996), available at
http://www.apa.org/pi/viol&fam.html
�� …and they are successful about 70% of the time.
American Judges Foundation, Domestic Violence and the Court House:
Understanding the Problem…Knowing the Victim, available at
http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/page5.html
�� Allegations of domestic violence have no demonstrated effect on the rate at
which fathers are awarded custody of their children, nor do such allegations
affect the rate at which fathers are ordered into supervised visitation. (i.e.
abusers win unsupervised custody and visitation at the same rate as nonabusers)
Kernic, Monary-Ernsdorff, Koepsell & Holt, Children In The Crossfire:
Child Custody Determinations Among Couples With A History Of
Intimate Partner Violence 11(8) Violence Against Women, 991-1021
(2005).

MYTH 6: Fit mothers don’t lose custody.
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�� Mothers who are victims of DV are often depressed and suffering from posttraumatic
stress disorder, and as a result, can present poorly in court and to
best-interest attorneys and/or custody evaluators.
J.M. Golding, Intimate Partner Violence As A Risk Factor For Mental
Disorders: A Meta-Analysis, 14 Journal of Family Violence 99-132
(1999); Kernic, Monary-Ernsdorff, Koepsell & Holt, Children In The
Crossfire: Child Custody Determinations Among Couples With A History
Of Intimate Partner Violence 11(8) Violence Against Women 991-1021
(2005).

MYTH 7: Parental Alienation Syndrome (“PAS”) is a scientifically sound phenomenon.
�� The American Psychological Association has noted the lack of data to
support so-called "parental alienation syndrome," and raised concern about
the term's use.
American Psychological Association, Violence And The Family: Report
Of The American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force On
Violence And The Family, (1996), available at
http://www.apa.org/releases/passyndrome.html

MYTH 8: Children are in less danger from a batterer/parent once the parents separate.
�� Many batterers’ motivation to intimidate and control their victims through
the children increases after separation, due to the loss of other methods of
exerting control.
Lundy Bancroft & Jay Silverman, The Batterer as Parent: Addressing the
Impact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics (2002);Langford, Isaac
& Kabat, Homicides Related to Intimate Partner Violence in
Massachussets 1991-1995, Peace at Home (1999).

MYTH 9: Parents who batter are mentally ill, OR
Parents with no evidence of mental illness cannot be batterers.
�� Mental illness is found only in a minority of batterers.
Gondolf, MCMI-III Results for Batterer Program Participants in Four
Cities: Less “Pathological” Than Expected, 14(1) Journal of Family
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Violence 1-17 (1999); Gelles R. & Straus M, Intimate Violence (1988)
(reporting that mental illness accounts for only 10% of abusive incidents).
�� Psychological testing is not a good predictor of parenting capacity.
Brodzinsky, On the Use and Misuse of Psychological Testing in Child
Custody Evaluations, 24(2) Professional Psychology: Research and
Practice 213-219 (1994).
�� Mental health testing cannot distinguish a batterer from a non-batterer.
O’Leary, Through a Psychological Lens: Personality Traits, Personality
Disorders, and Levels of Violence, in Current Controversies on Family
Violence 7-30 (Gelles & Loseke, eds.,1993).

MYTH 10: If a child demonstrates no fear or aversion to a parent, then there is no
reason not to award unsupervised contact or custody.
�� Children can experience “traumatic bonding” with a parent who abuses the
child or their other parent, forming unusually strong but unhealthy ties to a
batterer as a survival technique (often referred to as “Stockholm
Syndrome”).
Lundy Bancroft & Jay Silverman, The Batterer as Parent: Addressing theImpact of Domestic Violence on Family Dynamics, 39-40 (2002);
Herman, Trauma and Recovery (1992).

Morrill, Dai, Dunn, Sung & Smith, Child Custody and Visitation
Decisions When the Father Has Perpetrated Violence Against the Mother,
11(8) Violence Against Women 1076-1107 (2005); Jeffrey L. Edleson,
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The American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law will dedicate an entire issue every year to domestic violence issues.

Io che non conosco così bene l'inglese non capisco gran che.
Siamo in Italia, del resto...
Ma forse è meglio, visto che sono avvocato, e per di più donna...
non si sa mai....

Ma negano la PAS per mancanza di dati o l' abuso del termine?

Doctor, tu che sei esperto, come rispondi ai miti?

Ho dato una scorsa veloce, ma il mito 10 mi pare il migliore. Che ci sia avversione o meno comunque il rapporto parentale del minore deve essere "supervisionato " . Il reato , insomma , se non c'e', ci deve essere.
p.s. gli avvocati negli USA si piazzano fuori dei pronto soccorso per indurre le accuse di malpractise.

Il problema è che la fonte citata segue il paradigma di genere

p.s. gli avvocati negli USA si piazzano fuori dei pronto soccorso per indurre le accuse di malpractise.