Every year thousands of children are taken from protective parents by family courts and given to the parent found to have a history of violence, and often with evidence of having been abusive to either or both the protective parent or to the child(ren).
Research tells us that often custody litigation becomes the weapon of choice by batterers and child abusers in their attempt to continue their power and control over their victims after separation. But, officers of the court tend to be unreasonable in their suspicions of claims made by domestic violence survivors or children, and instead and too often, make custody decisions grounded in misinterpretation of fact, “bad science” such as alienation or evaluator bias.
It is imperative that those who work for justice in our legal system (attorneys, Guardian ad Litem's, judges, social workers, other evaluators, etc.) come to understand the dynamics of domestic violence, and how abusers use manipulative tactics, and the misuse of psychologists, Guardian ad Litems and evaluators to continue their victims abuse in family court in child custody cases.
Child Custody and Domestic Violence is NOT business as usual. - Dr.
Alice Belcher