| When domestic violence is before the court, fortified | | | | carpet. |
| with finance and politics, the net result is the | | | | There is no ownership, no accountability and no |
| protective parent is about punishment and the | | | | responsibility for the abuse toward the family. So |
| children are about abuse. | | | | what then happens to the abuse? It goes in its |
| Sound strange? If you're living it, the strange | | | | natural direction. It escalates. That's right, it gets |
| nightmare, while twisted, is ever so true. | | | | worse. It may change its form; however, its intensity |
| Far too often when domestic abuse survivors seek | | | | grows. |
| remedy for family violence in family court, they | | | | In many cases, the abused children are ultimately |
| discover that the abuse they longed to arrest is | | | | denied access to their protective parent and the |
| perpetuated by domestic relations court. Here's why: | | | | protective parent is denied access to their abused |
| Family Court Is an Improper Forum to Arrest Family | | | | children. Once established, this pattern is maintained |
| Violence | | | | by the children associating punishment with reaching |
| This court is actually not the proper forum to | | | | out to the protective parent. And for the estranged |
| remedy domestic violence, because of the fact that | | | | parent, reaching out to the children invites a taste of |
| holding either party accountable for their actions in a | | | | abuse. |
| marriage is irrelevant to divorce court. However, this | | | | How Does One Prevent This Vicious Cycle of Family |
| accountability is essential to arrest family violence. | | | | Abuse? |
| Holding a perpetrator accountable for their battering | | | | If you are in family court with an abuser and there |
| behavior is a necessary step to stopping domestic | | | | are children in your nest, beware if finances and |
| abuse, especially if it is expected that both parents | | | | politics are in arm's reach of your opposition. You |
| remain in the lives of their abused children. But this | | | | could be headed for lasting abuse rather than a |
| step is overlooked when finance and/or politics are in | | | | family violence remedy. |
| place to sweep the big elephant right back under the | | | | |