Web resource:	http://sydney.edu.au/law/slr/slr29_1/Kaspiew.pdf
Type:	Journal Article
Title:	Empirical insights into parental attitudes and children's insights in Family Court litigation
Other Titles:	The Sydney law review
Authors:	Kaspiew, Rae
Keywords:	Legislation analysis;Family law
Year:	2007
Publisher:	Faculty of Law
Citation:	29 (1), 2007
Notes:	General Overview: This article examines the role of evidence about parental attitudes to the other parent in Family Court of Australia. The research found that mothers’ attitudes towards fathers were the subject of significant scrutiny by the Court, while children’s interests were marginalised. Objective: The 2006 amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) include a provision concerning the willingness of a parent to facilitate a relationship between the child and the other parent. The author examines how the Court has considered these issues in the past, in order to provide a guide as to how the new provision might operate. Methods: The author examined the affidavits, family reports and judgments in forty Family Court cases involving disputes over residence and contact between 1999 and 2000 in the Melbourne Registry. Results: Family violence was a significant issue for more than half of the cases examined. The author identified five “severe” cases where there were allegations of extremely manipulative behaviour by a parent. In four of these cases, mothers raised the allegations against fathers and in the fifth, the claim was mutual. In four of the cases there were also allegations of extreme patterns of physical violence and control. The allegations of serious pressure and manipulation by fathers were accepted in four of the cases but contact was still ordered in three of these cases. The author also identified twenty “less severe” cases where fourteen fathers and five mothers alleged that their relationship with the child was being undermined by the other parent. The mother’s allegations were upheld in all five cases, while none of the fourteen fathers’ allegations were upheld. The author suggests that spurious allegations of manipulative behaviour were used tactically by these fathers as part of a pattern of violence and control. However, these tactics did not lead to the questioning of their bona fides as litigants or as contact parents. The author suggests that women in these cases are compelled to consent to the other party having some level of contact with a child to avoid being penalised by the courts for discouraging a relationship between the child and his/her father. The result is that the court is not required to consider whether contact is in the best interests of the child, as neither party is arguing against contact.
URI:	https://anrows.intersearch.com.au/anrowsjspui/handle/1/14548
ISSN:	0082-0512
Appears in Collections:	Journal Articles

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