Domestic violence and child custody: are family court professionals' decisions based on erroneous beliefs?

Abstract

If child custody decisions are based on erroneous beliefs, family courts may not be acting in the best interests of children. This study examined family court professionals' beliefs about family violence. Respondents (N = 410) of diverse professions, including child custody mediators, evaluators, and therapists, family law attorneys and judges, victim advocates and university students, completed a 10‐item multiple‐choice quiz. Results revealed low rates of correct responding, with respondents correctly answering approximately three out of 10 items on average, based on current research in the field. Overall, response rates were highly consistent with the discredited patriarchal paradigm. Shelter workers and victim advocates had the lowest average score, and men were found to have slightly higher scores than women. More troubling, students' scores were not significantly lower than those of family court professionals. Implications are discussed with respect to decision‐making in the context of child custody disputes.

Citation

Hamel, J., Desmarais, S., Nicholls, T., Malley‐Morrison, K. and Aaronson, J. (2009), "Domestic violence and child custody: are family court professionals' decisions based on erroneous beliefs?", Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 37-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/17596599200900011