Charity number: 1135731; Company number: 7117962;
Registered address: Oxford Place Centre, Oxford Place, Leeds LS1 3AX
Research
Valuing Motherhood - meeting the needs of women and children at separation and divorce
Maypole Women highlights many of the issues facing women and children through separation and divorce, issues which have been routinely ignored in family law.
Maypole’s response
to Government Consultation
The Experiences of Children and Protective Parents, Alison Hay, 2003
The majority of the children involved in this study felt Court Experts were of no assistance in looking after their best interests. The research found that the right to feel safe, and the protective parent’s role, were removed by Court Orders. There follows a consideration of what is helpful in developing a Family Court system that is responsive to children’s needs, and avoids exposing them to abuse.
No Way to Live-women’s experiences of family law and domestic violence, Dr L Laing, June 2010, Australia
Highlights the inadequacies of family courts to recognise the true nature of abuse and protect women and children. Specific concerns include scepticism about women’s allegations of violence and abuse, poor or non-existent risk assessment, lack of specialist knowledge about trauma, and an emphasis on fathering regardless of its quality.
Shared care parenting arrangements since the 2006 Family Law Reforms report, May 2010
There is not a straightforward linear relationship between the amount of time that children spend with both parents and children‘s well being, because there are so many other factors involved.
Care arrangements which are negotiated between parents, as opposed to those which are imposed by court, are associated with higher levels of wellbeing for children. Much of the success of shared care derives from factors other than the care arrangement itself, and in particular, higher levels of cooperation and joint decision-making and a lower incidence of reported violence or safety concerns.
Many shared care arrangements do not last, with care often reverting to the mother.
Family Violence and Family Law in Australia Volume 1, April 2010
Family Violence and Family Law in Australia Volume 2, 2010
Noted a strong link between reported domestic violence and child abuse and significant gender differences in experiences of abuse.
Women reported physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, verbal, social (isolating the victim), financial and oppressive control of many aspects of their lives, with ‘changeover’ times providing opportunities for further violence. Men did not report continuing violence after separation to the same extent, nor fear of their ex partner or fears for their children’s safety, or feelings of powerlessness in the same way. Instead, men were more concerned about obstructions to access to their children and false allegations of family violence and saw these as expressions of violence.
Many parents experiencing abuse reported that allegations were not investigated fully and were often interpreted as a tactical, rather than as a social problem requiring a protective response.
There were major criticisms about the way family violence was addressed in mediation, with parents being coerced to agree arrangements that were unsafe or inadequate for their children, including shared parenting, overnight or unsupervised contact, or any contact.
The family law socio legal service has not placed adult and child safety above all other principles, and unless it does so family violence will remain an unresolved, serious problem for separated families.
Findings that court conciliators routinely ignore, reframe, or reject allegations of domestic abuse during dispute resolution sessions. The authors suggest conciliators’ handling of allegations reflects an understanding of their institutional role that centre upon contact, and case processing at the expense of risk management.
The implications of fathers’ rights activism for abused women and their children.
Australian Government’s Evaluation of the 2006 family law, December 2009
In 2006 Australia adopted a resumption of 50/50 shared care unless safety concerns were identified. The majority professionals working with families involved in separation and divorce feel these changes have benefited mostly fathers the most.
How motherhood causes lasting damage to women’s earning capacity.
Men become richer after divorce, Stephen Jenkins, 2009
Male incomes rise by a third after a split, while women are worse off and can struggle for years.
Protecting a childs emotional development when parents divorce Peter Ernest Haiman, Ph.D. New Beginnings, a publication of La Leche League International, 1994 now on line 2009
Research that shows that the disturbance of a child’s emotional attachment to a primary caregiver (almost always the mother) in the first six years of life can create problems in childhood, adolescence, and adult life.
Implacably Hostile or Appropriately Protective?: Women Managing Child Contact in the Context of Domestic Violence, Christine Harrison, 2008
Women’s perspectives to demonstrate how family court proceedings and welfare practices marginalise violence and expose women and children to further abuse, showing how ‘contact now constitutes a significant site for continuing violence’.
Findings that non-resident parents (mainly fathers) were mainly successful in getting the type and amount of contact they wanted, even though most resident parents (mainly mothers) who objected to contact raised serious welfare concerns.
Criminal Rewards: The Impact of Parent Alienation Syndrome on Families, Andraé L. Brown, 2008
How allegations of PAS are used in the US as a legal tactic to win custody for fathers with a documented history of domestic violence and child abuse.
Domestic Violence, Safety and Family Proceedings, HMICA, 2005
Many women and children now live with the consequences of poor practice in Cafcass’s handling cases of domestic abuse.
Thorough and well respected research, looking at the incidence and impact of domestic violence on women and men. Shows women experience more severe and more frequent abuse, and are more likely to live in fear. The research concludes that ‘the context of fear is an important element in the understanding of domestic violence as a pattern of coercive control’.