Abstract
This qualitative descriptive study examines the perspectives of 19 mothers who survived intimate partner violence (IPV) and sought custody of one or more children through the family court system. We explored these mothers’ perceptions of the nature of court processes from start to finish, their understandings of the impact of court processes and outcomes on their well-being, and their recommendations for improvements to facilitate a process that is sensitive to survivors’ experiences with IPV. Mothers interviewed in this study described an experience that was largely invalidating and distressing, compounding the adverse effects of IPV on their well-being. Qualitative content analysis yielded six clusters: 1) survivors must enter into a court environment that implicitly presumes the absence of trauma, 2) survivors face obstacles to getting their stories of abuse across and heard, 3) survivors experience harmful and helpful interactions with court professionals, 4) survivors endure distress in the courtroom, 5) survivors suffer psychosocial consequences outside of the courtroom, and 6) survivors make recommendations for an improved custody process that is sensitive to experiences of IPV. Results paint a picture of a family court system that has the potential to cause grave, lasting harms to survivor-mothers who are separating from abusive partners.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Nicole P. Castillo, for her supervision of and consultation to the first author, Erin C. Miller, Jenna Birkett, Dominique Pattin, and Attorney Jeff Wolf, for their consultation throughout the process, a number of domestic violence agencies and organizations that played an integral role in the allocation of space and resources to support this project, Rachel Paciorek, Kasey Meyer, and Erin Kilbury for their assistance with data analysis as well as The Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College for their financial support. We especially appreciate the participants who took the time to tell us their stories with hope that their doing so could help someone else.
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Gutowski, E., Goodman, L.A. “Like I’m Invisible”: IPV Survivor-Mothers’ Perceptions of Seeking Child Custody through the Family Court System. J Fam Viol 35, 441–457 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-019-00063-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-019-00063-1