NCJ Number
162283
Journal
Law Guardian Reporter Volume: 11 Issue: 3 Dated: (1995) Pages: 1-4
Date Published
1995
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article identifies the prevalence of the coexistence of wife abuse and child abuse, as well as the paradoxes and conflicts this often presents in child protection policies; suggestions are offered for how New York City can better serve the interests of both victims of child abuse and spouse abuse in the same family.
Abstract
Despite the growing evidence and awareness of the correlation and interrelationship between domestic violence against women and the abuse or neglect of the children within the family, New York City does not have a comprehensive approach for dealing with family violence. Rather, court response is inconsistent. Services apparently operate at cross purposes, and pivotal lifelong decisions are made with inadequate information. Consequently, women are afraid to seek help because they are afraid that their children will be taken from them. Likewise, children who are old enough to report abuse are reluctant to do so in order to protect their mothers. The legal system must operate under the philosophy of promoting the family, not destroying it. If State intervention is necessary, it should result in more good than harm. Child protective services must work in cooperation with police, shelters for battered women and their children, and other programs to provide effective alternatives; to alleviate the economic pressure on women to stay with their children in violent homes; and to reinstate training for family court, supreme court, and criminal court judges. There must be a recordkeeping system that identifies both child abuse and domestic violence cases. The family court should recognize when visitation demands are being used to further harass or abuse mothers or children; however, the family court and others must also recognize the child's independent right to visitation. Judges should not use parent and child contacts as the sanction for violations of court orders or for behavior modification purposes because the court is uncomfortable using its contemptive power against batterers. Also, there should be trained, effective, educated attorneys available for children.