Custody Evaluators' Beliefs About Domestic Violence Allegations During Divorce: Feminist and Family Violence Perspectives

Custody Evaluators’ Beliefs about

Domestic Violence Allegations

During Divorce

Megan L. Haselschwerdt, M.S. & Jennifer L. Hardesty Ph.D.

Human and Community Development, University of Illinois

Jason D. Hans, Ph.D., CFLE

Department of Family Studies, University of Kentucky

Prevalence(American Psychological Association, 1994;Jaffe, Crooks, & Poisson, 2003)

• 20% of divorcing couples in the U.S. require judicial intervention to reach a custody agreement

– Allegations of domestic violence (DV) are raised and substantiated in about 75% of these cases

• Child custody evaluators are often called upon in these cases to conduct comprehensive evaluations and provide recommendations

Child Custody Evaluation: Process & Training(Lemon, 2000)

• Qualifications for conducting evaluations are ambiguous

• Training requirements are inconsistent both across states and within most individual states

• California is the only state that requires DV-specific training for custody evaluators

Theoretical Perspectives on DV(Jasinski, 2000)

Feminist Perspective Family Violence Perspective

Cause Patriarchy and contemporary constructions of masculinity

and femininity

Outcome of family conflict that isinstigated by stress; some violence

within families is normative

Sample Agency-based samples (e.g. hospital, shelter, court)

Samples from large scale surveys of the general population

Gender Symmetry

Gender asymmetric:Men primarily perpetrators Women primarily victims

Gender symmetric:Perpetration and victimization

reports nearly identical for men and women

Johnson‟s Typology of DV(Johnson, 2008)

Intimate Terrorism (IT)

(Feminist Perspective)

Situational Couple Violence(SCV)

(Family Violence Perspective)

Motives of DV Maintaining general control over one‟s partner

Family conflict that is instigated by stress

Distinguishing Features

Violence rooted in coercive control

Multiple violent and non-violent control tactics

Violence rooted in conflict or situational stress

Specific conflicts or situations in which one or both partners act out violently

Common Beliefs that Minimize DV(Bancroft & Silverman, 2002; Jaffe et al., 2003)

1. DV against spouse is not relevant to child custody

2. False allegations of DV are common during divorce

3. Battered women are unstable and passive victims

Research Questions

1. What are custody evaluators‟ perspectives on the dynamics of DV & are their perspectives consistent with a feminist or family violence perspective?

2. Do custody evaluators make distinctions in types of violence (IT vs. SCV)?

3. How are custody evaluators‟ theoretical perspectives related to their beliefs about the seriousness of DV and the credibility of DV allegations?

4. How are custody evaluators‟ theoretical perspectives related to their custody recommendations?

Method

• Subsample of a larger online survey of custody evaluators (N = 592) across the U.S.

• Semi-structured phone interviews– Each was audio-recorded and transcribed

• Grounded theory methods (Charmaz, 2006; Strauss & Corbin, 1998)

– Open, axial, and selective and constant comparative analysis

– Sensitizing concepts:

• Feminist and family violence perspectives

• Johnson‟s typology of DV

Sample (N = 23)

• 14 males, 9 females from a Midwestern state

• Mean age = 44.5 (range 41 – 71)

• 14 psychologists, 4 social workers, 2 attorneys, 1 therapist, 1

medical doctor, and 1 “other”

• Conducted evaluations an average of 14.5 yrs (range 4 – 33 yrs)

• Completed an average of 11.8 custody evaluations per year (range 5 – 25)

• 19 reported DV-specific training, 2 reported none, 2 taught

DV specific seminars

Feminist Custody Evaluators (n = 9)

DV-focused training

Extensive and continuous training in DV

Type of DV • “Power and control” by male partners as central to the DV in the majority of their cases

• Differentiated between types of DV

“The more common [type] for me is the controlling [DV] .

Those are the ones that are less likely to settle in a custody [dispute] and more likely to proceed to an evaluation.”

- James

Lorraine distinguished between a “fight that turn[ed] physical vs. a battering relationship” rooted in control.”

- Lorraine


DV-focused training




Relevance of DV to child custody

Spousal abuse is highly relevant to child custody especially in cases of IT

“If the father engages in controlling violence . . . the risks

to children increase [postseparation]. [They‟ll ] do it again and again. [With situational couple violence], a dad that was violent or mom that was violent can be a great parent afterwards and there‟s almost no risk to children if it‟s been treated well.” - Joseph


DV-focused training





Spousal abuse is highly relevant to child custody

Prevalence of false allegations

Rare (10% or less are false)


DV-focused training




Relevance of DVto child custody

Spousal abuse is highly relevant to child custody


Rare (10% or less DV allegations are false)

Custodyrecommendations

• Recommendations depend on type of DV• Err on the side of safety until IT is ruled out

“When there is an imbalance of power, which exists with

coercive controlling violence, the domestic violence needs to be remedied to increase the chances that parents will be able to cooperate and communicate effectively with each other. [With] situational couple violence . . . obviously those are different dynamics that don‟t necessarily require domestic violence intervention to remedy the problem.”

- James

Family Violence Custody Evaluators (n = 14)

DV-focused training

Minimal to no training in DV

Type of DV Almost exclusively SCV in their cases

Differentiated between “real DV” and the DV they saw

Explaining why he did not see “real DV” in his cases:

“If [the violence is] that bad, child protective authorities or legal authorities or someone else is going to have already dealt with it.” - Chris

Instead of a custody evaluation, Chris thought these parents “maybe should have their [parental] rights terminated.”


DV-focused training


Type of DV Almost exclusively SCV in their cases• “Control” a natural part of any couple dynamic• “It takes two to tango”• Differentiated between “real DV” and the DV they saw


Spousal abuse is not relevant to child custody (except in its effects on mothers‟ parenting abilities)

“A husband who is abusive towards his wife may have a very

different relationship with his children and can actually be a good father . The relationship [with the child] is very different than the kind of relationship that they have with the spouse.”- Laura

“You can have a situation where the victim isn‟t really able to parent effectively because of all of her issues [from DV] and so the more effective parent is actually the abuser.” - Mary


DV-focused training






• Common and purposeful (40 – 80% are false)• Red flag: mothers‟ demeanor, no documentation

“[Battered women] tend to be of a somewhat passive group

of people and, in this [one] case, this lady was describing her husband as a person who was chronically abusive and yet she was on the attack the whole time. She was one of the most assertively angry people. It just didn‟t add up. If she was so beaten down as she said she was then why [was] she endlessly ranting about this guy?” - David


DV-focused training






• Common and purposeful (40 – 80% are false)• Red flag: mothers‟ demeanor, no documentation

Custody recommendations

Recommendations should prioritize coparenting or father-child relationships

“[If DV is alleged], I would tend to lean toward custody

with the so-called „bad parent‟ because I know [the allegations are] not true, that the [father] is not like that. It is more like parental alienation syndrome stuff. The [father-child] relationship is going to be over if the kid‟s living with the [alleged victim].” - Michael

Discussion

• Feminist evaluators differentiated between types of DV in theory, practice, and recommendations

• Family violence evaluators differentiated between types of DV in theory but not in practice and recommendations

• Family violence evaluators‟ predominant discourse on false allegations and parental alienation was in stark contrast to feminist evaluators

• More extensive DV-focused training among feminist evaluators was the only demographic or background factor that might explain the differences between the two groups

Implications

• DV-focused training for custody evaluators

– Must be mandated, comprehensive, & continuous

– Must differentiate between types of DV and appropriate recommendations for each

• More research on differential responses to different types of DV is needed (Kelly & Johnson, 2008)

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Ramona Oswald and Kelly Korst for their contributions to the study, as well as the Campus Review Board for providing funding for this study.

Custody Evaluators’ Beliefs about

Domestic Violence Allegations

during Divorce

Megan L. Haselschwerdt, M.S. & Jennifer L. Hardesty Ph.D.Human and Community Development, University of Illinois

[email protected]

Jason D. Hans, Ph.D.Department of Family Studies, University of Kentucky

Custody Evaluators' Beliefs About Domestic Violence Allegations During Divorce: Feminist and Family Violence Perspectives

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