A Judge’s Guide

A. Men who batter their partners are likely to also abuse their children. 129 One study
estimated a seventy percent co-incidence of partner and child abuse in violent families. 130 In
New York, it was reported that half of the children whose mothers are abused are likely to be
victims of physical abuse. 131 In most cases, the abuse of the children ends when the children
are removed from the batterer’s environment and placed exclusively with their mother. 132
Additionally, the more serious the battery of the mother, the more severe the child
maltreatment. 133
B. After parental separation, there is increased risk that the batterer will physically,
sexually and/or emotionally abuse the children. 134 Post-separation, batterers will often use
the children as leverage to coerce the victim to return; whether promising gifts for them or
invoking guilt for depriving them of a father-figure. 135 Children report being routinely grilled
by the batterer regarding their mother’s actions, dress, social life and spending habits, in
flagrant disregard for the emotional toll exacted. 136 Children being molested by a parent
frequently do not report the abuse for some time, making prosecution and accountability
extraordinarily difficult. 137 The typical lack of physical evidence and witnesses only
perpetrated against their children and them was deemed irrelevant or trivial in determining permanent custody.”)
hereinafter What the Legal System Should Do For Children in Family Violence Cases).
129
Lundy Bancroft, WHY DOES HE DO THAT? INSIDE THE MINDS OF ANGRY AND CONTROLLING
MEN 239 (2002); Susan Schechter, Jon Conte and Loretta Fredrick, Domestic Violence and Children: What
Should the Courts Consider? in COURTS & COMMUNITIES: CONFRONTING VIOLENCE IN THE FAMILY
Conference Manual, ed. National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Family Violence Project (March
1993); Evan Stark and Anne Flitcraft, Women and Children At Risk: A Feminist Perspective on Child Abuse, 18
INT’L. J. HEALTH SVCES 97 (1988), as cited in Barbara J. Hart, Children of Domestic Violence: Risks and
Remedies (1992) in COURTS & COMMUNITIES: CONFRONTING VIOLENCE IN THE FAMILY Conference
Manual (1993) ); Holcomb, supra note 71, at 127.
130
Suzanne H. Jackson, Child Abuse, THE IMPACT OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ON YOUR LEGAL
PRACTICE: THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION COMMISSION ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, 5-17
(1996); Evan Stark & Anne Flitcraft, Woman-Battering, Child Abuse, and Social Heredity: What is the
Relationship?, MARITAL VIOLENCE (1985).
131
R. Messinger & R. Eldridge, New York Task Force on Family Violence, BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: THE
CITY’S RESPONSE TO FAMILY VIOLENCE (1993); see also Mildred Pagelow (1990) supra note 3, reporting
that more than half of those who batter their wives also abuse their children.
132
Lee H. Bowker, Michelle Arbitell, and J. Richard McFerron, On the Relationship Between Wife Beating and
Child Abuse, FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES ON WIFE ABUSE (1988).
133
Lee H. Bowker, Michelle Arbitell, & J.Richard McFerron, On the Relationship Between Wife Beating and Child
Abuse, in Kersti Yllo and Michele Bogard (Eds.) PERSPECTIVES ON WIFE ABUSE (1988), as cited in Barbara
Hart (1992) supra note 16.
134
Developments in the Law—Legal Responses to Domestic Violence: Battered Women and Child Custody
Determinations, 106 HARV.L. REV. 1597, 1612 (1993); and U.S. Dept. of Justice, Report on the Nation of Crime
and Justice: The Data (1993).
135
Robert B. Straus, Supervised Visitation and Family Violence, 29 FAM. L. Q. 229, 232 (1995).
136
David Adams supra note 5 at 25.
137
See, Arthur T. Pomponio et al., eds., INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF CHILD ABUSE AND
NEGLECT 35 (2004) (noting that “Delayed disclosure is the norm rather than the exception with abused
children.”).
248