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Children Exposed to Domestic Violence: Making Trauma‐Informed Custody and Visitation Decisions
Author(s) -
HORN PATRICIA,
GROVES BETSY MCALISTER
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
juvenile and family court journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.155
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1755-6988
pISSN - 0161-7109
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-6988.2006.tb00114.x
Subject(s) - child custody , domestic violence , psychology , criminology , alienation , mental health , suicide prevention , psychiatry , social psychology , political science , poison control , medicine , law , medical emergency
This article explores the risks for young children and the challenges for courts that emerge when parents who are victims or perpetrators of intimate partner violence seek court decisions on child visitation or custody matters. We focus particularly on children age five and younger, a group that is disproportionately represented in families affected by intimate partner violence, and especially vulnerable to its traumatic impact. We examine the literature on children's response to violence between their parents and the literature on parental alienation, a counter‐charge that may arise when one parent alleges violence as a reason to limit the other parent's access to the children. We look at challenges faced by both mental health professionals and courts involved in custody determinations and make policy recommendations to help courts make trauma‐informed decisions that best serve children.