Family Court Decisions About Child Custody in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence

家庭法院关于亲密伴侣暴力背景下儿童监护权的裁决

• 批准号: 1555701
• 负责人: Jennifer Hardesty
• 金额: $ 24.99万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-15 至 2020-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1555701&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Family; Court; Decisions; About; Child

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is common among divorcing parents who are unable to develop custody and visitation agreements on their own. Despite mandates requiring courts to factor IPV into custody and visitation decisions, studies indicate they often fail to do so. This study investigates decisions made in family court settings regarding the custody and visitation of minor children when IPV has been documented. Using administrative court records of 472 cases the following questions will be addressed: What are the patterns of IPV documentation in civil and criminal records, and how is documented IPV reflected in custody and visitation agreements? When and how is documented IPV associated with safer custody and visitation agreements? Then, among a subset of 190 divorce cases for which we have self-report data from mothers, we ask: Are self-reported physical and/or sexual violence and documented IPV associated with one another? What additional risk and protective factors are associated with custody and visitation agreements and the safety of those agreements when IPV is documented? Finally, how do custody and visitation agreements and the safety of those agreements for mothers with documented IPV compare to those who self-report physical and/or sexual violence that is not documented in court records? This study addresses a critical need to narrow the gap between research and family court practice and policy, and will contribute to the advancement of theory in several areas, including IPV, custody, courts and decision-making, legal implementation, and legal impact. In addition, this study can inform the development of protocols and assessment tools for identifying IPV in family court practice and, once identified, models for ensuring attention to safety in custody and visitation agreements. Phase I of this two-phase study will extract data from four sets of administrative records for divorce cases: divorce, family court, protective order, and criminal. The specific aims are to: (1) describe the presence, form, and timing (i.e., prior to and/or during the divorce case) of documentation of IPV against divorcing mothers in civil and criminal records, and examine how the documentation of IPV is associated with custody and visitation agreements and the safety of those agreements; and (2) among cases with IPV documented prior to the divorce case, identify parent, child, divorce process, and IPV-related factors that differentiate whether IPV is or is not documented in the divorce case file, and among cases with IPV documented in the divorce file, identify parent, child, divorce process, and IPV-related factors associated with custody and visitation agreements and the safety of those agreements. In Phase II, the administrative data from Phase I will be merged with additional variables collected during a recently completed study of mothers recruited within 12 weeks of a divorce filing. The aims of Phase II are to: (1) explore the association between self-reported IPV and presence of IPV documentation in civil and criminal records; and (2) identify mothers' self-reported perceptual and attitudinal factors (e.g., hostility, positive attitudes) and indicators of risk or threat (e.g., severity of IPV, controlling behaviors) that are associated with custody and visitation agreements and the safety of those agreements. Differences between mothers with self-reported and documented IPV in the divorce case file and mothers with self-reported but undocumented IPV will be examined. Bivariate and multivariate analyses will be conducted to examine patterns of IPV documentation and factors associated with custody and visitation agreements and the safety of those agreements. The inclusion of data from a subset of mothers early in the divorce process provides a unique opportunity to identify self-report factors that, in conjunction with data from administrative records, provide a better understanding of custody and visitation agreements in the context of IPV.

亲密伴侣暴力（IPV）在离婚的父母中很常见，他们无法自己制定监护和探视协议。尽管有任务要求法院将IPV因素纳入监护和探视决定，但研究表明，他们往往没有这样做。本研究调查的决定，在家庭法院设置有关监护权和探视未成年子女时，IPV已被记录。使用472个案件的行政法庭记录，将解决以下问题：什么是民事和刑事记录中的IPV文件的模式，以及如何记录IPV反映在监护和探视协议？何时以及如何记录IPV与更安全的监护和探视协议相关？然后，在190个离婚案例的子集中，我们有母亲的自我报告数据，我们问：自我报告的身体和/或性暴力和记录的IPV是否相互关联？当IPV被记录时，与监护和探视协议以及这些协议的安全性相关的其他风险和保护因素是什么？最后，与那些在法庭记录中没有记录的自我报告身体和/或性暴力的母亲相比，监护和探视协议以及这些协议的安全性如何？ 这项研究解决了一个关键的需要，以缩小研究和家庭法院的做法和政策之间的差距，并将有助于理论在几个领域的进步，包括IPV，监护，法院和决策，法律的实施，和法律的影响。此外，这项研究可以告知协议和评估工具的开发，用于在家庭法院的实践中识别IPV，一旦确定，模型，以确保关注监护和探视协议的安全。 这项两阶段研究的第一阶段将从离婚案件的四组行政记录中提取数据：离婚，家庭法院，保护令和刑事。具体目标是：（1）描述存在、形式和时间（即，在离婚案件之前和/或期间），在民事和刑事记录中对离婚母亲的IPV文件，并审查IPV文件如何与监护和探视协议以及这些协议的安全性相关联;和（2）在离婚案之前记录IPV的案件中，确定父母，子女，离婚过程，以及区分IPV是否记录在离婚档案中的IPV相关因素，以及在离婚档案中记录有IPV的案件中，识别父母、孩子、离婚过程，与监护和探视协议相关的IPV相关因素以及这些协议的安全性。在第二阶段，第一阶段的行政数据将与最近完成的一项研究中收集的额外变量合并，该研究对离婚申请后12周内招募的母亲进行了研究。第二阶段的目的是：（1）探索自我报告的IPV与民事和刑事记录中IPV文件的存在之间的关联;（2）确定母亲自我报告的感知和态度因素（例如，敌意、积极态度）和风险或威胁指标（例如，IPV的严重性，控制行为）与监护和探视协议以及这些协议的安全性有关。母亲与自我报告和记录的IPV在离婚案件档案和母亲与自我报告，但没有记录的IPV之间的差异将进行检查。将进行双变量和多变量分析，以检查IPV文件的模式和与监护和探视协议以及这些协议的安全性相关的因素。 在离婚过程的早期纳入母亲子集的数据提供了一个独特的机会，以确定自我报告的因素，结合行政记录的数据，提供了更好地了解监护权和探视协议的背景下，IPV。