Beyond the Polemics: Realistic Options to Help Divorcing Families Manage Domestic Violence

Abstract

For many divorcing families where there is domestic violence continues long after the divorce decree. A painful reality is that domestic violence is like a chronic disease: no cures, some remissions, every present. Rather, divorce provides ample, ongoing opportunities for the violence to continue. To our horror, children of divorce are often used as conduits of abuse.

Although domestic violence activists have skillfully politicized this issue, some of the societal gains they have achieved do little to ameliorate the burden shouldered by survivors and their families dealing with the day-to-day management of domestic violence. This article raises how such interventions as parallel parenting, mediation, parenting coordination and parent education as viable options to consider for some survivors and their families.