NCJ Number
145800
Journal
Violence and Victims Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1993) Pages: 69-84
Date Published
1993
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the process of separation and divorce for battered women and the new danger they face, hurdles they must overcome, and the advantages abusers enjoy in the legal system.
Abstract
Unequal power positions and domination-subordination roles of battering husbands and battered wives during marriage contaminate the process of separation and divorce. These dynamics may continue long after the marriages cease. Risks of extreme violence, rape, and homicide are highest when victims seek their freedom. Because both victims and abusers construct a veil of secrecy while married, even if abused wives disclose the violence during the separation process, there may be nothing to prove their claims. Restraining orders often fail to restrain obsessed husbands; other husbands may get revenge by using their children as pawns. Attitudes favoring fathers' rights and joint custody may help win unfair financial advantages and continued control over victims after divorce. Mandatory mediation in some States may give abusers additional advantages. Although some of these problems are being addressed with mechanisms to relieve them, the need to recognize problems that face battered wives in divorce and custody procedures has not received adequate attention. 98 references