A Judge’s Guide

that victims in multiple violent relationships show elevated rates mental illness, such as of selfdefeating
personality disorders, depression, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 253
Since childhood physical and sexual abuse increase the risk of PTSD, 254 counseling
interventions should address the lifespan of abuse. As might be expected, the length and
severity of the abuse appear to directly correlate to the degree of depression and mental illness.
Those battered women with chronic and severe personality disorders are more likely to have
been raised in violent families, and tend to stay with a batterer longer. 255
XIV. CHILDREN ARE ADVERSELY IMPACTED BY INADEQUATE CHILD
SUPPORT.
A. A primary cause of child poverty in the United States is the nonpayment of child
support. More than 80 percent of all non-custodial parents either pay nothing or less than 15
percent of their income for child support. 256 Currently, approximately $35 billion in child
support is owed to our children. 257 The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) warns that
were child support orders fully enforced, child poverty could be reduced by 47 percent. 258
B. The number one reason that abuse victims return to the abuser is a lack of financial
resources. Obtaining the child support not only increases the likelihood that the children will
be taken out of poverty, but also that they will not be again forced to return to the violent home
with their mother. For too many domestic violence victims, the child support check is all that
keeps them off welfare/TANF, for their minimum wage employment cannot sustain even a
family of two. Tennessee provides just $185 for a parent with two children and Texas allows
$228., while more than half of all states pay less than $400. per month for a family of three. 259
Given that the federal poverty guidelines are being revised from $16,000. per year for a family
of four up to $19,000., it is understandable that welfare is an appealing option for domestic
violence survivors.
C. Batterers often use nonpayment of child support as a means of harassing the victim
and forcing her to return. Pennsylvania found that the most common factor among those men
who did not pay child support was their shared propensity for committing domestic violence
253
Frederick L. Coolidge and Laura W. Anderson, Personality Profiles of Women in Multiple Abusive
Relationships, 17 J. of FAMILY VIOLENCE 117 (June 2002); The authors explain that behavior may rise to the
level of a personality disorder by virtue of the “symptoms’ pervasive, enduring, and disrupting consequences.” Id.
at 129.
254
Id. at 120.
255
Id. at 119.
256
Jessica Pearson & Esther Ann Griswold, A Preliminary Look at Client Experiences with the Good Cause
Exemption to Child Support Cooperation Requirements, 2 DOMESTIC VIOLENCE REPORT 1 (June/July 1997).
257
Richard Wolf, Welfare’s Problem Child, The Difficulty of Tracking Down Deadbeat Parents and Enforcing
Child Support Is Threatening Efforts to Get Welfare Families Back On Their Feet, USA TODAY, June 16, 1997,
p. 3A, col. 2.
258
OMB child support
259
Peter T. Kilborn, Welfare All Over the Map, The New York Times, December 8, 1996, p. E3, col. 1. Note that most of the
states providing higher benefits are in the north, where heating and winter-related costs negate the small differential.
264