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The Impact of Children on Legal Actions Taken by Women Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

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Abstract

Successful criminal or civil legal system response to assaults against intimate partners (intimate partner violence; IPV) usually rely on the victim’s participation in the legal process, including having contact with the prosecutor, filing charges, and/or applying for an order of personal protection. Using data abstracted from criminal and civil legal system records for a county-wide cohort of 990 female IPV victims over a 4-year period, we examine the impact of having children, and of specific child factors, on victims’ engagement with the criminal prosecution of their abusive partners and/or seeking a personal protection order (PPO) in the civil court system. Having children increased victim’s contact with the prosecutor and applications for PPOs, but did not increase her likelihood of wanting to file or drop charges. Findings support prior work suggesting both the importance and complexity of children on mothers’ decision-making. Policy makers and service providers may want to assess survivors’ thoughts about the role children play in their decision-making. Additionally, by offering survivors interventions to help their children address the impact of IPV exposure, survivors may be more willing to engage with services.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank TK Kim for database management and Patricia Smith, Director, Violence Against Women Prevention Program, Michigan Department of Community Health; the Kalamazoo County Prosecutor’s Office; all members of the Community Advisory Board; the YWCA Domestic Violence Program and the many research assistants who worked on this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Karin Verlaine Rhodes

  2. School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Karin Verlaine Rhodes, Melissa E. Dichter & Steven C. Marcus

  3. Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia VA Medical Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Melissa E. Dichter & Steven C. Marcus

  4. Michigan State University/Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies, Kalamazoo, MI, USA

    Catherine L. Kothari

  5. Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Karin Verlaine Rhodes & Steven C. Marcus

  6. Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY, USA

    Catherine Cerulli

  7. Division of Emergency Care Policy Research, Department of Emergency Medicine and School of Social Policy & Practice, University of Pennsylvania, 3815 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Karin Verlaine Rhodes

Authors
  1. Karin Verlaine Rhodes
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  2. Melissa E. Dichter
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  3. Catherine L. Kothari
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  4. Steven C. Marcus
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  5. Catherine Cerulli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karin Verlaine Rhodes.

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Research Support

NIJ 2006-WG-BX-0007; NIMH K23 MH64572 (Rhodes); K01MH75965-01 (Cerulli). In addition, this project builds on data collected during the MEDCIIN Projects, collected under a CDC cooperative agreement U17/CCU551067.

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Rhodes, K.V., Dichter, M.E., Kothari, C.L. et al. The Impact of Children on Legal Actions Taken by Women Victims of Intimate Partner Violence. J Fam Viol 26, 355–364 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9370-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-011-9370-8

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