Department of Human Studies, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Department of Human Studies, University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy.
Violence Vict. 2023 Oct 1;38(5):664-679. doi: 10.1891/VV-2021-0041. Epub 2023 Oct 9.
In recent decades, scholars and professionals have investigated the courts' treatment of mothers and children who claim that an ex-partner/father is abusive, especially in child custody proceedings. In Italy, Laws 54/2006 and 154/2013 established that joint-custody and coparenting are critical to ensure the best interest of the child. In the process of custody determination, judges can appoint an expert to assess parenting skills. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the knowledge, opinions, and practices of the Court-Appointed Experts (CAEs) in child custody disputes in cases involving allegations of domestic violence (DV). Semistructured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 CAEs; the interviews' transcripts were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Results suggested that in the management of child custody cases, most CAEs showed: strong prejudices against women victims of DV, who were often blamed and/or secondarily victimized; adherence to controversial models (e.g., parental alienation syndrome) and characterization of mothers as "alienators"; poor knowledge of DV and relevant laws. CAEs' overlooking DV underlines the urgent need to develop and implement guidelines on child custody decision-making in the context of DV.
近几十年来，学者和专业人士研究了法院对声称前伴侣/父亲虐待的母亲和儿童的处理方式，尤其是在子女监护权诉讼中。在意大利，2006 年第 54 号法和 2013 年第 154 号法规定，共同监护和共同育儿对于确保儿童的最佳利益至关重要。在监护权确定过程中，法官可以任命专家来评估育儿技能。本定性研究旨在调查在涉及家庭暴力（DV）指控的子女监护权纠纷案件中，法庭指定专家（CAEs）的知识、意见和做法。对 15 名 CAEs 进行了半结构化的面对面访谈；对访谈记录进行了定性内容分析。结果表明，在子女监护案件的管理中，大多数 CAEs 表现出：对遭受 DV 的女性受害者的强烈偏见，这些女性往往受到指责和/或二次受害；坚持有争议的模式（例如，父母离间综合征），将母亲定性为“离间者”；对 DV 和相关法律的了解不足。CAEs 忽视 DV 问题突出表明，迫切需要制定和实施针对 DV 背景下子女监护权决策的准则。
