Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

“If I Killed You, I'd Get the Kids”: Women's Survival and Protection Work with Child Custody and Access in the Context of Woman Abuse

  • Published:
Qualitative Sociology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Public interest in child custody and access has intensified under the guise of gender neutrality and without adequate attention to gender based violence. A study of formal systems' responses to abuse by intimate partners identified child custody and access as a central issue. Interviews with women revealed that upon leaving abusive partners, women's work involved the contradictory requirements of preserving the children's relationships with, yet protecting them from, their fathers. Interviews with service providers and document analysis illustrated how certain practices, policies and ideologies create and sustain these requirements. Findings illustrate that gender analysis and accounting for violence in custody and access practice are necessary to the safety of women and children.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

references

  • Amato, P. R. (1994). Life-span adjustment of children to their parents' divorce. The Future of the Children, 4, 143-164.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991a). Parental divorce and the well-being of children: A meta analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 100, 26-46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amato, P. R., & Keith, B. (1991b). Parental divorce and adult well-being: A meta-analysis. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 53, 43-58.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, J. M. (1991). Reflexivity in fieldwork: Toward a feminist epistemology. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 23, 115-118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beeman, S. K., Hagemeister, A. K., & Edleson, J. L. (1999). Child protection and battered women's services: From conflict to collaboration. Child Maltreatment, 4, 116-126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, L. (1991). Adolescent girls' experiences of witnessing marital violence: A phenomenological study. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 16, 431-438.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowker, L. H., Arbitell, M., & McFerron, J. R. (1988). On the relationship between wife beating and child abuse. In K. Yllö & M. Bograd (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on wife abuse (pp. 158-174). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, S. (1990). Potentialities and perils of the primary caregiver presumption. Canadian Family Law Quarterly, 7, 1-30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, S. (1996). Is there an ideology of motherhood in (post) modern child custody law? Social & Legal Studies, 5(<bib-issue>4</bib-issue>), 495-521.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, S. B. (2003). Child custody, law and women's work. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cahn, N. R. (1991). Civil images of battered women: The impact of domestic violence on child custody decisions. Vanderbilt Law Review, 44, 1041-1097.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J., Rose, L., Kub, J., & Nedd, D. (1998). Voices of strength and resistance: A contextual and longitudinal analysis of women's responses to battering. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13, 743-762.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J. C., Pugh, L. C., Campbell, D., & Visscher, M. (1995). The influence of abuse on pregnancy intention. Women's Health Issues, 5, 214-223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, M. (1998). Institutional ethnography and experience as data. Qualitative Sociology, 21, 55-73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, M., Copeland, B., & Tate, E. (1998). Taking the standpoint of people with disabilities in research: Experiences with participation. Canadian Journal of Rehabilitation, 12, 95-104.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics. (1993). Violence Against Women Survey highlights and questionnaire package. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chesler, P. (1991). Mothers on trial: The custodial vulnerability of women. Feminism & Psychology, 1, 409-425.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coltrane, S., & Hickman, N. (1992). The rhetoric of rights and needs: Moral discourse in the reform of child custody and child support laws. Social Problems, 39, 400-420.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobash, R. E., & Dobash, R. (1988). Research as social action: The struggle for battered women. In K. Yllö & M. Bograd (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on wife abuse (pp. 51-74). Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drakich, J. (1988). In whose best interest? The politics of joint custody. In B. Fox (Ed.), Family bonds and gender divisions (pp. 477-496). Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars' Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunne, J. E., Hudgins, E. W., & Babcock, J. (2000). Can changing the divorce law affect post-divorce adjustment? Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 33, 35-54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edleson, J. L. (1998). Responsible mothers and invisible men: Child protection in the case of adult domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 13, 294-298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edleson, J. L. (1999). The overlap between child maltreatment and woman battering. Violence Against Women, 5, 134-154.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ericksen, J., & Henderson, A. (1992). Witnessing family violence: The children's experience. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 17, 1200-1209.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fay, J. (1999). Beyond saints and sinners: Equality and the ideological construction of single mothers on social assistance. Vancouver, BC: West Coast Leaf National Forum on Equality Rights.

    Google Scholar 

  • Featherstone, B. (1999). Taking mothering seriously: The implications for child protection. Child and Family Social Work, 4, 43-53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fleury, R. E., Sullivan, C. M., & Bybee, D. I. (2000). When ending the relationship does not end the violence: Women's experiences of violence by former partners. Violence Against Women, 6, 1363-1383.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, M. M., Gazmararian, J. A., Johnson, C. H., Gilbert, B. C., & Saltzman, L. E. (2000). Pregnancy intendedness and physical abuse around the time of pregnancy: Findings from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, 1996–1997. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 4, 85-92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goundry, S. A. (1998). Final report on court-related harassment and family law “justice.” Vancouver, BC: BC/Yukon Women's Program, Status of Women Canada, Feminist Research, Education, Development and Action Centre (FREDA), and Vancouver Association of Women and the Law (VAWL).

    Google Scholar 

  • Graycar, R. (1989). Equal rights versus fathers' rights: The child custody debate in Australia. In C. Smart & S. Sevenhuijsen (Eds.), Child custody and the politics of gender (pp. 158-189). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guba, E. C., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research, second edition (pp. 163-188). London: Sage publishers Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammersley, M., & Atkinson, P. (1995). Ethnography: Principles in practice, 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hardesty, J. L. (2002). Separation assault in the context of post divorce parenting: An integrative review of the literature. Violence Against Women, 8, 597-626.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, A. (1990). Children of abused wives: Their influence on their mothers' decisions. Canada's Mental Health, 38, 10-13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, A. (1993). Abused women's perceptions of their children's experiences. Canada's Mental Health, 4, 7-11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henning, K., Leitenberg, H., Coffey, P., Bennett, T., & Jankowski, M. K. (1997). Long-term psychological adjustment to witnessing interparental physical conflict during childhood. Child Abuse and Neglect, 21, 501-515.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertz, R. (1996). Introduction: Ethics, reflexivity, and voice. Qualitative Sociology, 19, 3-9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heshusius, L. (1994). Freeing ourselves from objectivity: Managing subjectivity or turning toward a participatory mode of consciousness? Educational Researcher, 23, 15-22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hester, M., & Radford, L. (1996). Domestic violence and child contact arrangements in England and Domestic0. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hilton, N. Z. (1992). Battered women's concerns about their children witnessing wife assault. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 7, 77-86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, H. M. (1988). Psychological and behavioral correlates of family violence in child witnesses and victims. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 58, 77-90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys, C. (1997). Child sexual abuse allegations in the context of divorce: Issues for mothers. British Journal of Social Work, 27, 529-544.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys, C. (1999). Avoidance and confrontation: Social work practice in relation to domestic violence and child abuse. Child and Family Social Work, 4, 77-87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys, J. (1995a). Dependent-care by battered women: Protecting their children. Health Care for Women International, 16, 9-20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys, J. (1995b). The work of worrying: Battered women and their children. Scholarly Inquiry for Nursing Practice: An International Journal, 9, 127-145.

    Google Scholar 

  • Irwin, L., Thorne, S., & Varcoe, C. (2002). Strength in adversity: Motherhood for women who have been battered. Canadian Journal of Nursing Research, 34, 47-57.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe, P. G., Wolfe, D. A., Wilson, S., & Zak, L. (1986). Similarities in behavioral and social maladjustment among child victims and witnesses to family violence. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 56, 142-146.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaffe, P. G., Wolfe, D. A., & Wilson, S. K. (1990). Children of battered women. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, H. (1996). Dangerous domains: Violence against women in Canada. Scarborough, ON: International Thomson Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jouriles, E. N., Barling, J., & O'Leary, K. D. (1987). Predicting child behaviour problems in maritally violent families. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15, 165-173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaganas, F., & Sclater, S. D. (2000). Contact and domestic violence: The winds of change. Family Law, 30, 630-636.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kolbo, J. R. (1996). Risk and resilience among children exposed to family violence. Violence and Victims, 11, 113-128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurz, D. (1995). For richer, for poorer: Mothers confront divorce. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kurz, D., & Stark, E. (1988). Not-so-benign neglect: The medical response to battering. In K. Yllö & M. Bograd (Eds.), Feminist perspectives on wife abuse (pp. 234-248). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lather, P. (1993). Fertile obsession: Validity after poststructuralism. Sociological Quarterly, 34, 673-693.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lehman, F. (1996). Factoring domestic violence into child custody cases. Trial, 32, 32-40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, Y. S. (1995). Emerging criteria for quality in qualitative and interpretive research. Qualitative Inquiry, 1, 275-289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). From understanding to action: New imperatives, new criteria, new methods for interpretive researchers. Theory and Research in Social Education, 26, 12-29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lye, D. N., & Wechsler, M. (2000). Review of the 1999 Parenting Act Study. Washington State Bar News, retrieved July 8, 2001 (www2.wsba.org/barnews/2000/07/lye-wechsler.htm).

  • Mahoney, M. R. (1994). Victimization or oppression? Women's lives, violence, and agency. In M. Fineman & R. Mykitiuk (Eds.), The public nature of private violence (pp. 59-92). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McFarlane, J., Parker, B., Soeken, K., Silva, C., & Reed, S. (1999). Research exchange: Severity of abuse before and during pregnancy for African American, Hispanic, and Anglo women. Journal of Nurse Midwifery, 44, 139-144.

    Google Scholar 

  • McFarlane, J. M., Campbell, J. C., Wilt, S., Sachs, C. J., Ulrich, Y., & Xu, X. (1999). Stalking and intimate partner femicide. Homicide Studies, 3, 300-316.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morse, J. (1986). Quantitative and qualitative research: Issues in sampling. In P. L. Chinn (Ed.), Nursing research methodology: Issues and implementation (pp. 181-193). Rockville, MD: Aspen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Neilson, L. (2001). Spousal abuse, children and the legal system: Final report for the Canadian Bar Association, Law for the Futures Fund. Fredricton, NB: Muriel McQuenn Fergusson Center for Family Violence Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newmark, L., Harrell, A., & Salem, P. (1995). Domestic violence and empowerment in custody and visitation cases. Family and Conciliation Courts Review, 33, 30-62.

    Google Scholar 

  • Park, P. (1993). What is participatory research? A theoretical and methodological perspective. In P. Park, M. Brydon-Miller, B. Hall, & T. Jackson (Eds.), Voices of change: Participatory research in the United States and Canada (pp. 1-19). London: Bergin & Garvey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peled, E. (2000). Parenting by men who abuse women: Issues and dilemmas. British Journal of Social Work, 30, 25-36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peled, E., Jaffe, P. G., & Edleson, J. L. (1995). Ending the cycle of violence: Community responses to children of battered women. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rankin, J. (1999). Exploring the language of institutional ethnography: A theoretical grammar. Unpublished manuscript, University of Victoria, Victoria.

  • Reid, G. (1998). Documenting impact of legal aid cuts on women. Vancouver, BC: Vancouver Center for Research on Violence Against Women and Children.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhoades, H., Graycar, R., & Harrison, M. (2000). The Family Law Reform Act 1995: The first three years. Sydney: University of Sydney & Family Court of Australia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saunders, D. (1994). Child custody decisions in families experiencing woman abuse. Social Work, 39, 51-59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shalansky, J., Ericksen, J., & Henderson, A. (1999). Abused women and child custody: The ongoing exposure to abusive ex-partners. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 29, 416-426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepard, M., & Raschick, M. (1999). How child welfare workers assess and intervene around issues of domestic violence. Child Maltreatment, 4, 148-156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smart, C., & Neale, B. (1997). Arguments against virtue: Must contact be enforced? Family Law, 332.

  • Smith, D. E. (1987). The everyday world as problematic: A feminist sociology. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. E. (1990). Conceptual practices of power: A feminist sociology of knowledge. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, D. E. (1999). Writing the social: Critique, theory and investigations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spradley, J. P. (1979). The ethnographic interview. Orlando, FL: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanley, J., & Goddard, C. (1993). The association between child abuse and other family violence. Australian Social Work, 46, 3-8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark, E., & Flitcraft, A. H. (1991). Spouse abuse. In M. L. Rosenberg & M. A. Fenley (Eds.), Violence in America: A public health approach (pp. 123-157). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swift, K. J. (1995). Manufacturing “bad” mothers: A critical perspective on child neglect. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swift, K. J. (1998). Contradictions in child welfare: Neglect and responsibility. In C. T. Baines, P. M. Evans, & S. M. Neysmith (Eds.), Women's caring: Feminist perspectives on social welfare, 2nd edition (pp. 160-190). Toronto, ON: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, G., Barnsley, J., & Goldsmith, P. (1996). Women and children last: Custody and access disputes and the family “justice” system. Vancouver, BC: Vancouver Custody and Access Support and Advocacy Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, G., Taylor, R. L., & Boyd, S. (1998). A brief to the Special Joint Parliamentary and Senate Committee on Custody and Access Reform. Vancouver: Ad Hoc Committee on Custody and Access Reform.

  • Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (1998). Prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women: Findings from the national violence against women survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tjaden, P., & Thoennes, N. (2000). Extent, nature and consequences of intimate partner violence: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. National Institute of Justice and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torres, S., Campbell, J., Campbell, D. W., Ryan, J., King, C., Price, P., Stallings, R. Y., Fuchs, S. C., & Laude, M. (2000). Abuse during and before pregnancy: Prevalence and cultural correlates. Violence and Victims, 15, 303-321.

    Google Scholar 

  • Varcoe, C., Jaffer, F., & Irwin, L. (2002). Abuse through child custody and access: A critical site of women's work. Vancouver: University of Victoria Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, J. S., & Blakeslee, S. (1989). Second chance: Men, women and children a decade after divorce. New York: Tichnor & Fields.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Nursing, Lower Mainland Campus, University of Victoria, c/o Langara College, 5th Floor, Library Building, 100 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5Y 2Z6

    Colleen Varcoe (Associate Professor)

Authors
  1. Colleen Varcoe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lori G. Irwin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Colleen Varcoe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Varcoe, C., Irwin, L.G. “If I Killed You, I'd Get the Kids”: Women's Survival and Protection Work with Child Custody and Access in the Context of Woman Abuse. Qualitative Sociology 27, 77–99 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:QUAS.0000015545.82803.90

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:QUAS.0000015545.82803.90

Search

Navigation