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Domestic Violence, Child Custody, And Child Protection: Understanding Judicial Resistance And Imagining The Solutions, Joan S. Meier
Domestic Violence, Child Custody, And Child Protection: Understanding Judicial Resistance And Imagining The Solutions, Joan S. Meier
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This 2003 article seeks to take on what was then conventional wisdom, that myriad law reforms over the prior two decades have improved and corrected the law's response to domestic violence. It focuses on family courts' failure to credit and respond appropriately to protective mothers' - mostly battered women's - allegations that fathers are unsafe for the children. It unpacks several "neutral" principles that seem to guide family courts' responses to abuse allegations, arguing that they are mis-guided, and distort the realities of battering and child abuse in these cases. While not seeking to explain family court culture simply in …
Barriers To Reliable Credibility Assessments: Domestic Violence Victim-Witnesses, Laurie S. Kohn
Barriers To Reliable Credibility Assessments: Domestic Violence Victim-Witnesses, Laurie S. Kohn
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This Article examines the challenges for victims of domestic violence appearing in court when the victim presents differently than the paradigmatic domestic violence victim. In particular, this Article analyzes the strategic dilemma of presenting a victim who refuses to admit (or cannot access or does not experience) fear of the batterer, and the victim who feels anger towards her assailant.
This Article addresses possible policy and tactical responses to this challenge. Suggesting legislative changes that eliminate requirements that victims prove subjective fear of a battering partner, the Article further analyzes the use of expert witnesses to assist jurors and judges …