About Barry

Barry Goldstein is the co-author with Elizabeth Liu of Representing the Domestic Violence Survivor REPRESENTING THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SURVIVOR, co editor with Mo Therese Hannah of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ABUSE and CHILD CUSTODY and author of SCARED TO LEAVE AFRAID TO STAY. He has been an instructor and supervisor in a NY Model Batterer Program since 1999. He was an attorney representing victims of domestic violence for 30 years. He now provides workshops, judicial and other trainings regarding domestic violence particularly related to custody issues. He also serves as a consultant and expert witness.

Barry's new book, The Quincy Solution: Stop Domestic Violence and Save $500 Billion demonstrates how we can dramatically reduce domestic violence crime with proven practices.

Contact Barry today to speak at your event, consult or as an expert witness!

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About Veronica

After a 20 year Sales and Marketing career in the Television Industry, Veronica York felt a passion and a calling to make a career change. Following a 10 year marriage that was both mentally and emotionally abusive, and going through a difficult custody battle, she started her High Conflict Coaching practice. During her experience with the family court system, she realized that the best interest of the children was not the first priority. Parental rights are trumping children’s rights and children are suffering unnecessarily due to the outdated practices of judges and other court professionals. Along with helping her clients navigate their custody battles, she is also an advocate for change in the family court system as well as a champion for Domestic Violence training and education. Veronica is certified with the High Conflict Divorce Certification Program and has advanced training in family law mediation. She performs speaking engagements and writes articles regarding the topics of Child Custody Issues that involve Intimate Partner Violence and Child Abuse. She also does training on the misuse of Parental Alienation and the effects of Post Separation Abuse during a divorce.

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What Does Domestic Violence Have to do with Shared Parenting

Article by Barry Goldstein as seen in Huffington Post 12/11/2016

Huffington Post

Domestic violence became a public issue at a time when virtually no scientific research was available. This led to the implementation of many practices that are harmful and biased against direct victims and their children. Today we have a specialized body of scientific research which includes what should be the obvious fact that domestic violence advocates are the best experts society can look to for accurate information.

The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Research from the Centers for Disease Control demonstrates the harm from tolerating domestic violence is far greater than previously understood. Children exposed to domestic violence face shorter life expectancy and a lifetime with greater health and social problems. Although most professionals focus only on physical abuse it is living with the fear engendered by coercive and controlling tactics that leads to the worst kind of stress. Living with this stress leads to a lifetime of harmful consequences.

The present level of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental illness, substance abuse, crime, suicide and school drop-out and many other health and social problems is based on the present level of domestic violence and child abuse. The United States loses over one trillion dollars every year on health costs, crime and the failure of those impacted by domestic violence to reach their economic potential. This comes to about $3,000 per person. The financial costs to other industrialized nations is probably somewhat less based on the high costs of health care in the United States, but still very substantial. This depressing news has an exciting counterpart. When nations decide to implement best practices to prevent domestic violence they will improve the health, happiness and success of their children.

Putting Shared Parenting in Context

Custody courts have been particularly slow to reform old responses to domestic violence, integrate current scientific research and use a multi-disciplinary approach that includes advocates when trying to recognize and respond to reports of domestic violence. Most custody cases are settled more or less amicably. This is even true in many cases that include domestic violence where the abusers are unwilling to deliberately harm their children by attempting to remove the mother from their lives. The problem involves less than 5% of cases that require a trial and often much more. Many court professionals have been taught to view contested custody as “high conflict” cases by which they mean the parents are angry at each other and act out in ways that hurt children.

Most courts have developed practices to help and often pressure the parents to work more cooperatively. These practices could work well in other cases, but a very large majority of contested cases involve domestic violence. This means the courts are pressuring the victim and children to cooperate with their abusers instead of pressuring the abuser to stop the coercive and controlling tactics. Many laws seeking to promote shared parenting provide an exception for dangerous cases like domestic violence, but the use of outdated practices frequently causes courts to disbelieve true reports of abuse. And too often abuse concerns are viewed as an obstacle to the desired outcome.

A large contributor to the problem are well organized and aggressive organizations that promote the interests of domestic abusers. They have developed a variety of practices including shared parenting to help them regain control when the victim tries to leave. A cottage industry of lawyers and psychologists has developed because in domestic violence cases the abusers usually control the money so it is more lucrative to promote approaches that help abusers. Courts often treat these biased and ignorant professionals as if they were neutral. The misinformation they provide also poisons other cases when judges believe the bogus claims.

Abuser groups—who would call themselves men’s rights or father’s rights groups— have promoted shared parenting as a way to get their foot in the door. In our still sexist societies, the mother is usually the primary attachment figure and more involved parent so if one parent had to be chosen it would be the mother. Fathers make arguments about treating both parents equally and keeping both parents in children’s lives.

The Saunders’ Study from the US Department of Justice was designed to consider the knowledge and training of judges, lawyers and evaluators concerning domestic violence. Among the findings were that abusers use the decision-making in shared parenting to regain control because they will not agree to anything the victim wants. They use the visitation exchanges to harass and assault the victims.

The purpose of abusers seeking custody is to force the victim to return or punish her for leaving. Shared parenting is a first step toward giving the abuser full custody. Shared parenting puts them on equal footing despite the past history. Courts think shared parenting saves resources, but most cases return to court so the benefits are illusory.

Conclusion

There is good research that found shared parenting is always harmful to children because it is so disruptive. There is legitimate research that shared parenting can work if it is voluntary, the parents are able to cooperate and live nearby. Of course, those cases are not likely to lead to problems. Shared parenting is never appropriate in domestic violence cases or even when there are abuse reports. The present outdated responses to domestic violence often prevent courts from believing true reports. The consequences to the children and for society are catastrophic. Shared parenting provides an incentive for court professionals to disbelieve victims. Given the risks to children, legislatures must reform the old practices that often fail to protect children from adverse childhood experiences. Shared parenting should be taken off the table until effective practices can be implemented to make sure all children are protected. We must stop erring on the side of risking children.

GOLDSTEIN & YORK DV Experts, LLC