Lawyers Manual - Unified Court System

Evolution of the Justice System’s Response 5
in fighting against gender stereotypes. Domestic violence is, at its core, an issue
of gender inequality. The batterer’s goal is to beat the equality out of his victim.
Systemic gender inequities facilitate the batterer in this effort. These inequities
play out in countless ways when victims seek help from the justice system.
Advocates have storehouses of anecdotes, such as when victims are labeled
“hysterical” or “incredible” because they allege abuse, or when police refuse to
enforce orders of protection because they feel sorry for the abuser denied access
to his children, or when courts allow abusers to delay paying child support or
maintenance. In April 2002, the New York State Judicial Committee on Women
in the Courts issued a follow-up report to its groundbreaking 1986 analysis of
gender bias in the courts. 7 The findings and recommendations of the initial
analysis and the follow-up report show clearly how gender bias can — and still
does to some extent — permeate and corrupt the administration of justice in the
court system. In the section on domestic violence, the report notes, for example,
that victims of domestic violence often face a higher standard of credibility than
their abusers, that many judges still need a better understanding of the effects of
domestic violence on victims and the grave danger they face, that some judges
grant abusers access to their children without sufficient regard for the safety of
the children or their mothers, and that law guardians and forensic evaluators
often fail to recognize domestic violence and its effects on children. 8 When
battered women have to fight against gender bias in the courts, they are doubly
abused. Courts simply cannot do justice when they make the blind assumption
that the parties in domestic violence cases come before them equal in status.
Comprehensive and continuous efforts to wipe out gender bias in the justice
system are a top priority.
A related problem is the pervasive presumption that, while domestic
violence may harm the adult victim, it is not necessarily harming the children in
the family. If not for the gender bias that clouds our vision, common sense would
say clearly that a father who hurts the mother of his children is, by definition,
hurting his children. This has been borne out by advocates’ anecdotal experience
and fortified by years of social science research, which shows without question
that children are harmed by domestic violence. From 30 to 60% of children in
homes where a parent is physically abused are also physically abused, and many
of the rest show signs of psychological harm and trauma. 9 Our current system
gives abusers the benefit of the doubt and cuts off access to their children in
only the most egregious of cases. This puts children at risk. A fundamental law
change is needed so that a parent who chooses to use violence in his relationship