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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:22 am
Time: 2:22 am
Results for divorce mediation
1 results foundAuthor: Beck, Connie J.A. Title: Intimate Partner Abuse in Divorce Mediation: Outcomes from a Long-Term Multi-cultural Study Summary: Despite three decades of scholarly research on numerous aspects of divorce mediation, there is no comprehensive understanding of the short- and long-term outcomes for couples legally ordered to mediation to resolve custody and parenting time disputes or for those using free (or low cost) conciliation court mediation services to do so. Even less is known about the use or effectiveness of court-mandated mediation services among couples alleging intimate partner abuse (IPA). This study was funded by NIJ to address these gaps in the literature. Using several archival court and law enforcement databases, we systematically documented actual percentages of IPA in those participating in mediation, systematically analyzed mediator practices addressing those IPA cases, and systematically assessed mediation outcomes, divorce outcomes and post-decree outcomes for IPA cases. To accomplish this we linked archival data from two court databases and two law enforcement databases for a large matched sample (N=965) of couples involved in the divorce process in one court-based mediation program in one jurisdiction. We first linked data produced in business-as-usual, naturalistic clinical interviews used to screen parents for marital stressors and IPA to questionnaire data also measuring specific IPA-related behaviors. We then linked this IPA data to the mediator’s decisions concerning whether to identify a case as having IPA or not, whether to proceed in mediation or to screen out IPA-identified cases, and whether to provide special procedural accommodations for IPA-identified cases. We then linked the IPA and mediator decision data to mediation outcome data from mediation case files and to outcomes in final divorce decrees and parenting plans found in Superior Court divorce files. We then linked these pre-divorce and divorce data to post-divorce, longitudinal data concerning re-litigation of divorce-related issues in Superior Court and longitudinal data concerning contacts with area law enforcement. The results of this study provide strong empirical support for previous estimates that most couples attending divorce mediation report some level of IPA. Mediators accurately identified many but not all client self-identified cases of IPA. One third of the couples classified as non-IPA reported at least one incident of threatened and escalated physical violence or sexual intimidation, coercion or assault. Cases were rarely screened out of mediation (6%) and special procedural accommodations were most often provided in cases where a parent called the mediation service requesting the accommodations or reporting concerns about IPA and about participating in mediation (84%). Calls to area law enforcement and orders of protection were common (approximately 40% of couples for each category). While mediation agreements that included restrictions on contact between parents or on parenting were rare, the victims of the highest level of IPA often left mediation without agreements and returned to court, wherein they obtained restrictions on contact between parents and/or restrictions on aspects of parenting at a much higher rate than those appearing in mediation agreements. Mediators are not judges and therefore, these results are to be expected. It is a rare abuser who will voluntarily agree to terms that allow less control over contact with the victims and more structured contact with the couple’s children. The majority of parents in the study returned to court at some point to re-litigate divorce-related issues (62%); however, a small group of couples (4.5%) who returned for a tremendous number of hearings (31% of total number of hearings for all couples in study). The fact that parents reaching agreements are less likely to relitigate provide significant support for the use of mediation programs. According to reporting by parents in this study, at least some form of IPA occurred in over 90% of the cases and two thirds of the couples reported that either or both partners utilized outside agency involvement from police, shelters, courts, or hospitals to handle the IPA. These figures represent a tremendous amount of IPA in couples mandated to attend mediation. Thus, it is essential that highly trained mediators who use standardized screening procedures and follow program policies regarding how to handle IPA cases. Details: Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona, 2011. 238p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 1, 2012 at: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/236868.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/236868.pdf Shelf Number: 123917 Keywords: Divorce MediationFamily ViolenceIntimate Partner ViolenceSpouse Abuse |