Abused Women
The family courts reject D.V, child abuse and child sexual abuse as a reason to bar contact
Domestic violence has been 'looked' at by the government and harsher sentences were proposed, but in the family courts D.V is still an acceptable form of punishment for women and children.
Domestic violence
Too often domestic violence is a crime that is hidden away, but we are determined to bring it out into the open and tackle its root causes.
What is meant by 'domestic violence'?
Domestic violence is any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between adults who are or have been in a relationship together, or between family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.
Facts & figures
Although domestic violence is chronically under reported, research estimates that it:
- accounts for 16% of all violent crime (Source: Crime in England and Wales 04/05 report)
- has more repeat victims than any other crime (on average there will have been 35 assaults before a victim calls the police)
- costs in excess of £23bn a year
- claims the lives of two women each week and 30 men per year
- is the largest cause of morbidity worldwide in women aged 19-44, greater than war, cancer or motor vehicle accidents
- will affect 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men in their lifetime
Whatever form it takes, domestic violence is rarely a one-off incident. More usually it's a pattern of abusive and controlling behaviour through which the abuser seeks power over their victim.
Domestic violence occurs across society, regardless of age, gender, race, sexuality, wealth and geography. The figures show, however, that it consists mainly of violence by men against women.
Victims of domestic violence suffer on many levels - health, housing, education - and lose the freedom to live their lives how they want, and without fear. We aim to support victims of domestic violence with a range of new measures
Domestic violence helplines
The following helplines can offer you practical help and advice including:
- emergency refuge accommodation
- safety planning and advice
- translation facilities if you have difficulty communicating in English
English National Domestic Violence helpline
0808 2000 247
Northern Ireland Women's Aid 24 Hour Domestic Violence Helpline
028 9033 1818
Scottish Domestic Abuse Helpline
0800 027 1234
Wales Domestic Abuse Helpline
0808 80 10 800
www.wdah.org
Male Advice & Enquiry Line
0845 064 6800
The Dyn Wales/Dyn Cymru Helpline
0808 801 0321
www.dynproject.org (new window)
"Small Justice follows paralegal Diane Hofheimer and her attorney husband as they represent three women, all loving mothers, who have lost custody of their children to men with demonstrated histories of sexual abuse and domestic violence. These women, all articulate, thoughtful, educated, are just some of the women who tell of the horror of watching their children ripped from their arms to be handed over to the person who abused them.
New research, personal stories, as well as the letters and e-mails sent to Small Justice (www.smalljustice.com), indicate that the family courts are often biased against battered women and/or ignorant of the manipulations of batterers and abusers.
BACKGROUND ON THE ISSUE OF FAMILY COURT INJUSTICE:
Where the ordinary rules of evidence do not apply, where there are no guidelines for what should be accepted as "expert" testimony, and where judges routinely take children away from the protective parent and place them in the care of the person the children have named as their abuser. The frightening, ugly truth is that manipulative abusive people, the kind that have made headlines from Boston to Los Angeles, tend to be great liars. They are people with superficial charm, who make better witnesses in court, than the people that have been abused.
Without the checks and balances of the rules of evidence and cross examinations, children are frequently handed over to parents who have been demonstrated to be guilty of child rape and acts of deplorable, heartbreaking violence. Something is terribly wrong. This is the issue that Small Justice explores"
Garland Waller Documentary.
Unfortunately, even after separating from their abusers, many mothers find it extremely difficult to protect their children from ongoing abuse as a result of the requirement to comply with contact orders made by the family courts. Women’s Aid supports a child’s right to safe contact, but recognises that contact with an abusing parent may not always be in the children’s best interests.
In 1999, a survey of 130 abused parents it was found that 76% of the 148 children ordered by the courts to have contact with their estranged parent were said to have been abused in the following ways during visits: 10% were sexually abused; 15% were physically assaulted; 26% were abducted or involved in an abduction attempt; 36% were neglected during contact; and 62% suffered emotional harm. Most of these children were under the age of 5. (Radford, Sayer & AMICA, 1999).
In their response to the consultation paper on "Contact between Children and Violent Parents", the Association of Chief Officers of Probation stated that information received from local Family Court Welfare Services suggests that domestic violence is present in almost 50% of cases, where a welfare report is ordered. (Association of Chief Officers of Probation, 1999).
In a survey of refuge services, Women's Aid found that in reported cases since April 2001, a total of 18 children were ordered to have contact with parents who had committed offences against children and a total of 64 children were ordered to have contact with parents whose behaviour previously caused children to be placed on the Child Protection Register. 21 of these children were ordered to have unsupervised contact with the abusive parent (Saunders & Barron, 2004).
Only 3% of service providers surveyed by Women’s Aid think that appropriate measures are being taken to ensure the safety of the child and resident parent in most contact cases involving domestic violence (Saunders & Barron, 2004).
The number of contact orders refused has dropped drastically over the last 4 years. In 2002, there were 61,356 applications for contact orders under the Children Act 1989, of those, only 518 (0.8%) were refused. (Lord Chancellor's Department, 2003).
Women's Aid has compiled a list of 29 children (in 13 families) who have been killed as a result of contact or residence arrangements in England and Wales over the last ten years (however, since there are no national statistics kept on this, the actual figure may be higher). Ten of these children were killed since 2002. With regard to five of these families, contact was ordered by the court (letter dated 16.7.2002 to Women's Aid Federation of England from Rosie Winterton, Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department).
