Domestic Violence, Separation and Parenting: Negotiating Safety Using Legal Processes

Abstract:     
This article reports selected findings from a study of women who were negotiating and facilitating residence and contact arrangements for their children with a former partner who had abused them (Kaye, Stubbs & Tolmie 2003). The article analyses women's attempts to protect themselves and their children from domestic violence using legal processes. In doing so it contributes to the empirical literature in two ways. Firstly, it demonstrates that women (at least when they are mothers) are not autonomous actors. Women's experiences of domestic abuse and the manner in which they engage with the legal system are profoundly affected by their relationships with others, especially their children. We found evidence that women's and children's safety are often both at risk in circumstances of domestic violence and that women's capacity to achieve effective legal protection from domestic violence may be diminished as a consequence of their role as mothers. Secondly, the study provides recognition of the fact that where women have separated from a former partner their recourse to legal protection from violence for themselves and their children will typically require them to engage with both State legislation and family law. We found that inconsistencies and failures in coordination between different systems and bodies of law can potentially diminish the degree of protection from domestic violence that women are able to achieve.

Keywords: Domestic violence, separation, parenting, legal processes, family law, criminal law

JEL Classifications: K14, K19, K42, K49

Accepted Paper Series