Violence against women after separation and divorce of the partners: Challenges in assessments and decisions on protection measures

Abstract

The subject of this paper is violence against women in the period of separation and after the partners? divorce/separation. Leaving a violent partner can be a risk factor for the continuation or emergence of violence, the primary motive being the male partner?s desire to maintain control over his female partner. Experts May perceive pre-existing violence as a problem of an ended relationship, or consider that women raise this issue, and even play it up because they are emotionally hurt or trying to gain an advantage in court. The root of violence is misinterpreted, as a response to a stressful divorce situation, ranging from the man?s anger and deprivation due to separation, as a passing ?incident?, to mutual partner violence. The purpose of our research, which is of exploratory character, is to look at the situation and the behaviour of experts from the two services - the Welfare Center and the Court - in the context of the described problem. A qualitative approach was applied, i.e. documentation relative to 62 court cases has been analyzed, with a special focus on cases (25) in which the lawsuit for domestic violence protection measures was filed after the divorce/ separation of the partner, after the procedures of determining custody of children were completed. The analysis revealed that in nearly all the examined cases (96,8%) it was the woman who sought protection measures to be imposed. Most of the women (80,6%) had been exposed to physical violence and frequent threats, whereas all of them had suffered diverse forms of psychological violence. In nearly all of those cases (95,2%) the children had witnessed their fathers? violent behaviour towards their mothers, and were often direct victims of manipulation against their mothers; or the women had received threats involving their children. The analysis has detected two types of situations with several variations. The first type relates to situations where violence was present during the marriage, sometimes from the very beginning, and continued after the partners? separation/ divorce, while the second type relates to cases where violence was predominantly connected to the context of visitation and maintaining contact between the child and the parent who was not granted custody. It has been shown that the complexity of the phenomena and situations, coupled with the lack of clear and practical information on the process and content of assessments, pose serious challenges and responsibilities to experts. Bearing in mind that the principle of the protection of the victim?s safety is primary and guiding all expert procedures, it would be necessary to improve the understanding of the difference between conflict and violence, the impact of coercive control and abuse, including the abuse of children in this context, when assessing and deciding on protection measures and determining the visitation model between the children and the parent who was not entrusted with custody, so as to guarantee the protection and welfare of both women and children.