14 DAY TRIAL // After a divorce, one of the most pressing issues is the parenting of the couple's children, which has to be performed, ideally, by both parents. However, some marriages do not end amiably, because one spouse has been abusing the other. Now, the issue here is what kind of abuse are we talking about. Behavior experts say that a judge has to be aware of the differences between, for example, intimate terrorism or situational violence, when passing on his or her ruling. A new study, which has only recently appeared in the scientific journal Family Relations, aims to answer this dilemma.
“There's a tendency to treat all violence as if it's the same, but different types of violence require different interventions. In intimate terrorism, the goal is to control the other person, and the abuser may use not only physical violence but also psychological and financial abuse to dominate his spouse. This calls for rigid, formal post-divorce safety measures, including supervised visitation of children and treatment approaches, such as a batterers intervention group or alcohol or substance abuse treatment,” University of Illinois assistant professor of human and community development Jennifer Hardesty explains the difference.
“Situational violence is more likely a result of poor conflict management rather than a desire to control a partner. There may have been a heated argument about finances that ended with a shove. These fathers can probably learn new ways to manage their anger, and they do have the potential to safely co-parent their children,” the expert adds.
In regards to co-parenting, Hardesty says that women who have been subjected to intimate terrorism are very likely to not experience a stop in their abuse, if the father is allowed by a judge to co-parent. “Separating from an abusive partner does not necessarily end the violence. Instead, separation may threaten an abuser's sense of control and instigate more violence. Women in the study who had been victims of intimate terrorism all continued to be afraid that their ex-husbands would hurt them or their children,” the researcher adds.
“Eventually, we hope the courts will be able to screen for different types of violence and target interventions, but we're not yet able to put this into practice. More research is needed to tease out these difficulties. Until we can, I think we have to err on the side of safety,” the study concludes.