and often an unsafe, arrangement when one parent has abused the other. " This finding seems to be ignored and the welfare of the children disregarded the majority of the time. As long as the court has no knowledge of the abuser subjecting the child to abuse, many courts find there is no reason to extend protection to the child.
Studies show, however, that there is a very strong correlation between spousal abuse and child abuse. In fact, a study by Lee H. Bowker, Michelle Arbitell and J. Richard McFerron which looked at 1,000 battered women found that "wife beaters abused children in 70% of the families. " Even with statistics this compelling, many courts are overlooking the need to determine custody in domestic violence cases. In New York, however, the courts are beginning to acknowledge the need to protect children who have lived in homes with domestic violence. In 1996, the New York State Legislature enacted a law requiring courts to consider domestic violence in deciding child custody and visitation cases. This law took into account the impact of domestic violence on children, even if the children did not directly witness the abuse. The law stated that "studies indicate that children raised in a violent home experience shock, fear, and guilt and suffer anxiety, depression, somatic symptoms, low self-esteem and developmental and socialization difficulties Therefore, at the time the court must make judgments regarding the custody and visitation of children, great consideration should be given to the corrosive impact of domestic violence and the increased danger to the family upon dissolution and into the foreseeable future. " This trend of taking into consideration the effects of the abuse on the child along with the prevalence of domestic violence to extend from spousal abuse to child abuse must continue in order for any change to take place.
With no laws in North Carolina currently protecting the welfare of children in custody decisions dealing with domestic violence, most of the decisions are left to the discretion of the court.
• Conservative Muslim protests promoted violence in 1978 so a military government was appointed to deal with the uprising oil workers. ... • The decision was not a product of the moment but an institutional embodiment of a historical, social and cultural reality. ...
