NCJ Number
170880
Journal
Trial Volume: 33 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1997) Pages: 20-23,25
Date Published
1997
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Children who live in abusive households suffer serious emotional injuries when they watch one parent batter the other, and experts estimate about 3 million children have witnessed their mothers being abused.
Abstract
In the most shocking cases, children witness the murder of one parent by the other or discover the body of a slain parent. Legal experts, social workers, and policymakers often do not know how to help children who witness domestic violence. Two issues, child custody and mental health care, are crucial to the well- being of these children. In the past, the trend in child custody disputes has been to give custody to the most financially stable party or to encourage joint custody to keep family ties intact. As a result, child custody has often been awarded to or at least shared by the abuser. More recently, numerous lawmakers are having second thoughts about awarding joint custody in abusive situations. Many States have laws requiring judges to take domestic violence into account when making child custody decisions. An effective solution for children who live in abusive homes must have several parts: (1) criminal liability must be imposed on abusers; (2) child custody laws must be revised so an abuser does not have unsupervised visitation; and (3) child abuse reporting laws must be improved so children who are subjected to abusive environments are removed to safe havens and receive the counseling they need. Current law suggests several potentially successful theories in civil cases on behalf of children from abusive homes. These theories include bystander emotional distress, loss of parental and filial consortium, interference with a parental relationship, and marital torts. Rights of children who have been victimized by domestic violence should receive fair consideration in the legal system, and trial lawyers have an important role to play in finding ways to compensate for devastating psychological injuries suffered by children who witness domestic violence. 26 notes and 1 photograph