The statistical information, data and numbers can not be ignored.
We think we have a health care and economic problem now?
Unless something is done about how family courts render custody to abusers, the economic toll to the tax payer will be devastating. It is time to stop ignoring the issues victims of abuse face every day and start becoming a part of the solution. Whether we realize it or not, by ignoring the problem directly impacts our children, our families, our communities and especially our wallets.
“Whenever family courts in America give custody to abusers, or ignore credible evidence of domestic violence or child abuse in making custody decisions, it is a gross injustice. When it happens all across the country and occurs on regular basis, it is a national scandal.” (Nolan & Waller, No Way Out But One, 2012)
Here are some troubling statistics/facts Nationally:
- Batterers will gain custody of the children 70-85% of the time in Family Court at record rates and problem is increasing. (Ass. Of Judges) (New England School Of Law, 1990)[i]
- Judge Salcido, a former California Family Court Judge, spoke out on the tactics the state of California used to train judges to automatically disqualify any mother’s concerns or allegations of abuse.[ii]
- ACE Study backed by CDC[iii] (Kaiser Permanente, 1998-2006) - The ACE Study findings suggest that certain experiences are major risk factors for the leading causes of illness and death as well as poor quality of life in the United States. Children exposed to domestic violence will suffer more illnesses and injuries throughout their lives and have shorter lives,
- The annual health care costs of intimate partner violence are between $333-750 billion. The higher amount is likely because even in a medical setting patients routinely deny their partner’s abuse for safety and other reasons. (Academy on Violence and Abuse, 2009)
- The United States spends over one trillion dollars on health care, crime and economic loss annually as a result of domestic violence. This is in effect an abuser subsidy. Best practices based on the Quincy Model would quickly save $500 billion annually of this expense. (Goldstein)
- Every year 58,000 children are sent for custody or unprotected visitation with dangerous abusers. (Silberg)
- A U. S. Department of Justice study found that the standard and required training for evaluators, judges and lawyers does not provide the necessary domestic violence expertise. This is the worst possible combination because the professionals do not have the understanding they need of domestic violence, but think they do so fail to consult with genuine experts and make the same mistakes over and over. This explains why so many true allegations of domestic violence and child abuse are denied. (Saunders, 2011)
In Massachusetts, data has repeatedly shown that “Fathers who actively seek custody obtain either primary or joint physical custody over 70% of the time” (New England School Of Law, 1990).[iv] This statistic is the same across the country as documented through various studies by the Department of Justice and the Association of Judges and over the years has shown a drastic increase of custody to fathers to a rate as high as 85%.
Since the Gender Bias Study has been published in 1990, not much has changed in Massachusetts. Starting with the Gender Bias Study in 1990 to the Fox News Report “Lost In The System” interview with former Family Court Judge Salcido in 2013, billions of dollars are being spent on domestic violence programs in a broken system. The system now compared to 1990 is not much safer if at all for victims especially when confronted with family court judges who routinely discriminate and punish victims and protective parents for trying to protect their children from abuse as you will see.
In 1990, the Gender Bias Study cited other serious concerns in regards to child custody determination in Massachusetts Family Courts. “The presumption in favor of shared legal custody that is currently held by many family service officers can result in the awarding of shared legal custody in inappropriate circumstances. We also found that abuse targeted at the mother is not always seen as relevant to custody and visitation decisions. Our research indicates that witnessing, as well as personally experiencing, abuse within the family causes serious harm to children.” (New England School Of Law, 1990)
The Gender Bias Study also showed serious concerns involving domestic abuse citing “that domestic abuse cases in the civil and criminal arena may not receive the emphasis they merit and that this underlies the poor coordination between the courts and law enforcement agencies.” (New England School Of Law, 1990)
Victims of abuse many times have difficulty leaving their abusers due to financial controls, abuse, lack of resources. Most are unable to afford housing or an attorney due to lack of resources and retaliations by Family Court Judges, and many times the abuser sabotages the victim’s ability to maintain employment. According to the Gender Bias Study, the committee discovered that women in general experience a serious “lack of access to adequate legal representation: many women cannot obtain [*747] the assistance they need, particularly in the crucial first days and months after separation. Women without legal representation (pro se) find the system difficult to navigate, and free legal services are often not available to them. Private counsel may be unwilling to represent women because of the difficulty obtaining adequate awards of counsel fees during, and sometimes after, a trial. The second issue is repeated concern expressed by family law attorneys regarding the accuracy of financial data presented to the courts and the failure of the courts to take seriously the rules surrounding discovery in family law cases.” (New England School Of Law, 1990)
How bad is it? In 1993, then-Senator Joe Biden conducted a three-year investigation into the causes and effects of violence against women with a startling report that led to the 1994 passage of the original Violence Against Women Act. In that report, Biden wrote, “…violence against women reflects as much a failure of our nation’s collective moral imagination as it does the failure of our nation’s laws and regulations…it deserves our profound public outrage.”
What has changed since 1990? Unfortunately, not very much where family courts, custody and abuse are involved in Massachusetts.
MASSACHUSETTS SNAPSHOT ABOUT ABUSE:[v] (Massachusetts Failing To Protect Victims Of Abuse, 2011)
- In 2010, nearly 1 in 2 women and 1 in 4 men in MA have ever experienced sexual violence victimization other than rape.
- Nearly 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men in MA have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by an intimate partner in their lives.
- Eleven percent (11%) of high school students and six percent (6%) of middle school students reported being physically hurt by a date sometime in their life.
- 56% report being late for work due to tactics by batterers.
- Just in the last ten years alone, child abuse has doubled in the State of Massachusetts since Governor Deval Patrick took office, while funding to services and protections to victims of abuse have been slashed.
- 2004 Study by Harvard University states, Family Courts in Massachusetts are failing victims of abuse and their children.[vi]
There have been many well-known individuals and experts who have been outspoken about the problems surrounding family courts in Massachusetts and abuse.
Wendy Murphy is an adjunct professor at New England School of Law and ex-prosecutor who has represented many victims of abuse pro se and authored many articles criticizing the State of Massachusetts for their failures to protect victims of abuse. In one of her articles in the Patriot Ledger in 2011, she cites that "...During Patrick’s administration, the rate of domestic violence murders skyrocketed”. She also blasts many of the local domestic violence organizations for their failures citing “victim advocates in this state don’t fight for justice and tough punishments. They ask the public to “speak out” about domestic violence and to call a battered women’s program when abuse happens....And because advocates have been co-opted with ideology-driven promises of trivial sums for their piddly “training and education” budgets, in exchange for silence about the failure of political leaders to give a damn, we can be assured of more dead bodies in the future." (Murphy, 2011)
Kristen Lombardi is another writer who was courageous enough to expose the corruption and bias in Family Courts against victims of abuse. In her 2003 article in The Boston Phoenix, “Custodians of Abuse” (Lombardi, 2003), she cited three studies regarding child custody and abuse in family courts; all with the same conclusion. “The nation’s family courts are failing to protect children from abuse.” Kristen Lombardi also documented what is repeatedly being reported nationally, that not only are victims of abuse losing custody to abuser at alarming rates, but Family Courts across the country are prohibiting the protective parent from having any contact with their children. No phone calls. No visits. Nothing. Family-court judges simply don’t believe the protective parents.
Lombardi also cited a study from Amy Neustein stating that “The system retaliates against mothers with such ferocity that they lose their rights….Family-court judges, for example, hold women in contempt, throw them in jail, scale back their visitation privileges, and even forbid them to seek psychological care for their children. In some instances, judges have gone to the extreme of ordering women not to have any contact — no letters, no phone calls — with their children.” (Lombardi, 2003) Her article is detailed, thorough and well researched citing many credible sources on the epidemic problem in family courts and abuse.
Lombardi further cited the November 2002 sharp critique of the Massachusetts family court system as part of a three-year research effort known as the Battered Women’s Testimony Project (BWTP) by the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College. The report contends that officials who work in the Massachusetts family courts “regularly commit what the report described as “human-rights violations” against battered mothers.” (The Wellesley Centers For Women, 2002)
A 2004 Harvard Study also cited Family Courts failures to protect victims of abuse and corroborated with same or similar statistical information as previous studies. In their study, “several themes emerged that corresponded to a consistent pattern of potential human rights violations by the Massachusetts family courts”. (Silverman, 2004) According to Silverman and his team, these included:
1. Granting physical custody of children to men who had used violence against the mothers or both the mothers and their children
2. Granting unsupervised visitation of children to men who had used such violence
3. Failing to accept or consider documentation of domestic violence as relevant evidence in child custody determinations
4. failure to investigate allegations or consider documentation of child abuse
The Harvard study goes on to cite that “many family courts view such concerns as either irrelevant or a tactic to be ignored in cases of divorce, said Silverman. This failure directly leads to courts placing children in harm's way.” (Silverman, 2004). As result of these failures, the state of Massachusetts and the family courts have also failed to sufficiently consider the following:
1. "right to due diligence" as described in the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women;
2. The "best interests of the child" as described in the Convention on the Rights of the Child;
3. The right to "bodily integrity," a fundamental human right enshrined in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;
4. And the "right to equal protection" under the law described in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In June 2007, Judge James Menno of Plymouth/Brockton Family Court was the key note speaker for the Fatherhood Coalition for incarcerated fathers on how to gain visitation and custody of their children paid for by a Father’s Rights Coalition and The State of Massachusetts. (Holland, 2007)[vii] There are NO such programs for incarcerated mothers in the state of Massachusetts. Who is getting a fair share in custody courts? In this 2007 press release, incarcerated fathers noted gained FULL legal and physical custody within 2wks after release for manufacturing and drug distribution of meth. No reports on where the mother is or why mother not involved.
Why is this relevant? Judge Menno has recused himself three times in his career – ALL domestic violence related cases (mine being one of those cases). There are 20 known cases so far with Judge Menno granting custody to documented abusers … some documented child sex abusers.
What is Judge Menno’s track record in custody proceedings? Let’s just say some research and watch dogs groups need to take a closer look, because, Judge Menno has rendered some very troubling custody decisions in abuse cases. Judge Menno is just one example of a systemic problem in the state of Massachusetts.
In September 2012, Barry Nolan wrote an article in Boston Magazine summarizing the under reported problematic issues surrounding domestic violence as well as the lobbying and political efforts by groups being funded by abusers whose agenda is to undermine the protections and laws put in place for victims of abuse in Massachusetts. This is a must read article and the threats of protections to victims need to be taken seriously. These protections that threaten victims affect all of our children too. (Nolan, Attack of the 50-Foot Feminist Agenda, 2012)[viii]
Barry Nolan is also the co-producer with Garland Waller for the award winning documentary, No Way Out But One, which is about the first American woman to be granted asylum by the Netherlands on the grounds of domestic violence. (Nolan & Waller, No Way Out But One, 2012). This is a must see film that documents one family’s atrocities regarding custody, abuse, and the family courts.
Finding this hard to believe? In 2013, Judge Salcido, a former California Family Court Judge, spoke out on the tactics the state of California used to train judges to automatically disqualify any mother’s concerns or allegations of abuse. The key is that California was directly targeting mothers to disqualify and punish them for raising any concerns of abuse valid or not. You can see her commentary on the Fox News series Lost In The System. (FOXLA, 2013)
Batterers have been gaining custody at a rate of 70-85% of the time in contested cases[ix] (American Judges' Foundation). The cost of society IGNORING abuse exceeds $333 BILLION annually just in healthcare alone not taking into the account of the cost to the prison system, welfare, Medicaid, housing etc. (CDC, 2013) The cost may be as high as $750 BILLION, because even in a medical setting, patients routinely deny their partner’s abuse for safety and other reasons. (Academy on Violence and Abuse, 2009) "The economic burden rivals the cost of other high profile public health problems, such as stroke and Type2 diabetes." (CDC, 2014)
The United States spends over one trillion dollars on health care, crime and economic loss annually as a result of domestic violence. This is in effect an abuser subsidy. Best practices based on the Quincy Model would quickly save $500 billion annually of this expense. (Goldstein)
Want to know why the cost of healthcare so high? The failure of family court to properly conduct early intervention, medical professionals improperly coding domestic violence, and protect the victim of abuse is one reason and based on our research the number reported by the CDC is grossly under-reported. The medical community is beginning to recognize the seriousness of screening for interpersonal violence, but still fails to address the proper coding. (Skolink & Clouse, 2014)
The ongoing ACE study is the longest study that start in 1997 with over 17,000 participants (Kaiser Permanente, 1998-2006). The study focuses on childhood abuse, neglect, and exposure to other traumatic stressors which is termed adverse childhood experiences (ACE). The short- and long-term outcomes of these childhood exposures revealed a multitude of health and social problems. Those who adversely affected are at higher risk for the following health problems:
· Alcoholism and alcohol abuse
· Cancer
· Aids
· Diabetes
· Eating disorders
· Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
· Depression
· Fetal death
· Health-related quality of life
· Illicit drug use
· Ischemic heart disease (IHD)
· Liver disease
· Risk for intimate partner violence
· Multiple sexual partners
· Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs)
· Smoking
· Suicide attempts
· Unintended pregnancies
· Early initiation of smoking
· Early initiation of sexual activity
· Adolescent pregnancy
Are fathers getting their fair share in family court? My answer is abusers in general have the upper hand in court. Good parents and children are losing to the racket of family courts. Victims of abuse are routinely being harmed with staggering statistics for long term damage and cost to the tax payer for the family courts failures. The statistical information, data and numbers can not be ignored.
We think we have a health care and economic problem now? Unless something is done about how family courts render custody to abusers, the economic toll to the tax payer will be devastating. It is time to stop ignoring the issues victims of abuse face every day and start becoming a part of the solution. Whether we realize it or not, by ignoring the problem directly impact our children, our families, our communities and our wallets.
My story is just one of many listed in all this statistical data enthralled in one of the worst legal battles in the history of Massachusetts involving many aspects that would make a great movie plot. I won’t belabor the facts behind my case due to the fact, when my story is told (backed with facts) it is usually overwhelming for the listener or reader. However, I can provide you evidence and proof of everything from corruption, cover-ups, theft, extortion, as well as depriving me and my children a loving relationship since 2007 for speaking out about the abuse perpetrated upon me, my family, and other families alike despite state DCF and appointed supervisor testimonies and evidence to corroborate my story. I have never been declared an unfit parent. I do not drink. I do not do drugs. I have never been convicted of a crime. I have never abused my children. My only crime in the eyes of family court, is trying to protect my children from an abusive father. My case started out as a domestic violence case, and I have had little to no contact with my children since September 2007 AFTER I went to court seeking protections from abuse. If you wish to learn more about my case or about the general problem in Massachusetts, I would be happy to provide you with names, numbers, and documentation to back up my story and claims. I would even consider being a guest on any radio or tv shows if permitted to discuss the systemic problem in general, not necessarily my case. (Bonetzky-Joseph, n.d.)
Alone we are silenced. Together we can create postive ripples and waves of change. Our children ... our nation ... our taxpayers are depending on us as adults to DO something to protect them and end the court licensed abuses and trillions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies to batterers.
References
Academy on Violence and Abuse. (2009). The Hidden Costs of Healthcare: The Economic Impact of Violence and Abuse. Academy on Violence and Abuse, Eden Prairie, MN. Retrieved from http://www.ccasa.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Economic-Cost-of-VAW.pdf .
American Judges' Foundation. (n.d.). Domestic Violence and the Court House: Understanding the Problem. Knowing the Victim . Williamsburg, VA. Retrieved from http://aja.ncsc.dni
Goldstein, B. (n.d.). Not a Private Matter: Ending the $500 Billion Abuser Subsidy . Robert D. Reed.
Holland, C. D. (2007, June 27). More than 1,600 Offenders Have Become Better Fathers Thanks to Probation's Fatherhood Program. (O. o. Probation, Ed.) PRESS RELEASE: The Massachusetts Court System. Retrieved from http://www.mass.gov/courts/probation/pr062707.html
Kaiser Permanente. (1998-2006). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/ace/
Skolink, A., & Clouse, A. M. (2014, February 1). Clinical Guidelines: Screening for intmate partner violence, abuse of vulnerable adults. Family Practice News, 44(2), 1, 19.
The Wellesley Centers For Women. (2002). Battered Women's Testimony Project (BWTP). Three Year Research Effort on Massachusetts Family Court System, Wellesley College, The Wellesley Centers For Women.
[iii] Kaiser Permanente; Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study; CDC; The initial phase of the ACE Study was conducted at Kaiser Permanente from 1995 to 1997. More than 17,000 participants completed a standardized physical examination. No further participants will be enrolled, but the CDC is tracking the medical status of the baseline participants. http://www.cdc.gov/ace/
[viii] Nolan, Barry; Attack of the 50-Foot Feminist Agenda; Angry, radical men’s groups believe males are being victimized by out-of-control judges and politicians. They’re wrong and they’re dangerous and they need to be stopped; Boston Magazine; September 2012
[ix] American Judges' Foundation. Domestic Violence and the Court House: Understanding the Problem.Knowing the Victim . Williamsburg, VA: Author. (see, Forms of Emotional Battering Section, Threats to Harm or Take Away Children Subsection: http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/domviol/page5.html ) Fathers are often awarded sole custody even when their sexual and physical abuse of the children is alleged and substantiated. According to the American Judges Association, 70% of the time the abuser convinces the court to give him custody. http://www.leadershipcouncil.org/1/pas/dv.html
