Custody Battles and the Impact on Children
Erroneous Handling of Abuse Cases and the Often Silent (or Silenced) Victims Caught In-Between
Custody battles, often fraught with emotion, have implications that stretch beyond the immediate parties involved.
The often hidden casualties are the children — silently enduring the process, absorbing its reverberations, and living the consequences.
In cases intertwined with allegations of abuse, the stakes are exponentially higher, and the potential for missteps, more profound.
It is my experience (having formerly practiced law for the better part of a decade), that family court systems, meant to serve as an impartial mediator, frequently misapprehends the nuanced intricacies of abuse, both physical and psychological.
What seems to be an objective evaluation often falls victim to deep-rooted biases, perpetuating myths surrounding abuse, victimhood, and credibility.
The guiding principle of custody decisions is in most jurisdictions legislation, often stated to be the “best interests of the child.”
While the meaning of this should be clear on the surface, there are in fact a myriad of ways in which this can be interpreted — with such interpretation at the…
