Supervised and Unsupervised Parental Access in Domestic Violence Cases: Court Orders and Consequences.

摘要

When a victim of intimate partner violence separates from and secures an order of protection against her partner and the couple has children in common, New York City Family Courts are likely to grant the father visitation . Exchange of children for visitation can present an opportunity for continuation of the abuse, however. Exposure to domestic violence has demonstrably negative effects on children, including depression, withdrawal and somatic distress (internalizing problems) and aggression and delinquency (externalizing problems). The Model Code of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (1994) recommends that child visitation be granted to a perpetrator of domestic violence only if safety of the child and victimized parent can be protected through such arrangements as supervised visitation or, exchange of the children in a protected setting. The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine conformity of visitation decisions to the Model Code; (2) compare different visitation conditions in regard to re-abuse; and (3) examine children's psychological well-being given their exposure to abuse.