Intimate Partner Violence During Visitation: A Longitudinal Study of Supervised and Unsurpervised Access

Project Summary for 2002-WG-BX-0012

This study will explore the extent to which different court-ordered visitation arrangements expose victims of domestic violence to further abuse from ex-partners and result in their children being threatened or witnessing violence by their fathers. The applicant will interview victimized mothers in New York City_100 whose ex-partners are receiving short-term supervision at a visitation center and 250 whose ex-partners are receiving unsupervised or family-supervised visitation_and will also hold focus groups with men attending a batterer's program. In addition, the applicant will investigate whether court-ordered visitation arrangements for non-custodial parents conform to a model code for visitation issued by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The project goal is to increase the understanding of risks of and provisions for court-ordered visitation under different conditions in domestic violence cases in order to prevent future violence against women and children in these situations. Specific aims are to examine (1) the outcomes for children and mothers under conditions of supervised visitation, unsupervised visitation, family-supervised visitation, and supervised or public transfer; (2) which families receive professionally supervised visitation and which do not; and (3) how courts handle visitation for families with a history of domestic violence when professional supervision is not ordered or cannot be accessed. Study findings will provide information to the courts and affiliated programs, including family court judges, custody evalustors, law guardians, resource coordinators, and supervised visitation programs.

ca/ncf