“I WANT MY MOMMIES”: THE CRY FOR MINI‐DOMAS TO RECOGNIZE THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE CHILDREN OF SAME‐SEX COUPLES*

In child custody cases, courts will look to the best interests of a child to maintain visitation/custody rights only with the child's biological parent, not third parties. However, with a same‐sex couple, it is inevitable that one parent will not be the biological parent. Thus, when that parent is in a mini‐DOMA state, where same‐sex couples from non‐mini‐DOMA states do not have to be recognized, that parent will be viewed as a third party and lose all visitation/custody rights if the couple separates. This note advocates that mini‐DOMAs allow both the biological and nonbiological parents of a same‐sex couple to have visitation/custody rights of their children if it would be in the best interest of the children to do so.     

VISITATION AND CHILD SUPPORT GUIDELINES

Fabricius and Braver argue that nonresident fathers incur appreciable visitation expenses and that their child support obligations should be reduced accordingly. To assess whether fathers incur "appreciable" expenses requires data from mothers and fathers on expenditures in dollar terms rather than data from college students on items kept in the nonresident father's house. The Fabricius and Braver data also overstate the degree to which all divorced fathers do anything for their children. Representative data indicate that father visitation declines substantially over time. Father's postdivorce, post–child support standard of living remains twice that of mothers and children. The cliff model—making adjustments for visitation only in the rare cases of very high shared physical custody—is sensible policy.     

STATE SUPREME COURT APPLICATIONS OF TROXEL v. GRANVILLE AND THE COURTS' RELUCTANCE TO DECLARE GRANDPARENT VISITATION STATUTES UNCONSTITUTIONAL

In this article, the author reviews state supreme court applications of Troxel v. Granville , analyzing the impact of the decision on the courts' ongoing efforts to adjudicate visitation disputes between parents and grandparents. Set against a background of legislative recognition of grandparents' rights and judicial uncertainty regarding the appropriate role of nonparents in children's lives, Troxel reaffirmed the constitutional right of parents to direct their children's upbringing. The author argues that state supreme courts evaluating gradparent visitation statutes and seeking to enforce Troxel 's presumption in favor of parents should be more willing to strike down overly broad statutes. Such an approach would be a positive step toward addressing the excessive judicial discretion that the Troxel Court found so problematic, and would signal to state legislatures the need for statutes that both provide for the needs of children and protect parental rights.     

SUPERVISED VISITATION: A CALL FOR A SECOND GENERATION OF RESEARCH

With the divorce rate rising and related child visitation disputes becoming an increasingly difficult issue before the courts, supervised visitation programs have proliferated over the last decade. The literature demonstrates that ongoing contact between children and both parents following separation and/or divorce is important for children's socio‐emotional adjustment and positive child/parent relations. However, there is a paucity of literature demonstrating a relationship between supervised visitation programs and child/parent relationship outcomes. Based on the lack of outcome research the authors argue for a second generation of research regarding intended and unintended consequences of supervised visitation. This article reviews and synthesizes the current literature, highlighting strengths, limitations, significant findings and proposes a critical need for evidence‐based research.     

Family Law,Parents with Disabilities,and the Americans with Disabilities Act

Parents with disabilities contend with bias within the family law system, often threatening their custody and visitation rights. The overarching goal of this article is to explore the experiences of parents with disabilities involved in custody and visitation disputes and the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in these cases. This article begins with an overview of parents with disabilities and their interactions with the family law system. Next, the article examines the ADA and its applicability to custody and visitation disputes. Finally, the article offers thoughts about strategies that can be utilized by attorneys to ensure that the rights of parents with disabilities are protected.     

Parental Representations in the Play of Preschool Aged Witnesses of Marital Violence

The play of young children has long been used clinically to understand children’s experiences and inner feelings. More recently, children’s play has been examined quantitatively to understand differences due to varying backgrounds, family relationships, etc. Forty preschool children (21 girls and 19 boys) aged 27 to 71 months from families with histories of domestic violence were observed using a play interview, The MacArthur Story Stem Battery, to determine if severity of violence, frequency of visitation with their previously violent fathers, and mother-child relationship functioning impacted how parents were represented in play. Overall, girls represented their parents more positively regardless of other family circumstances. Boys, especially those who did not visit regularly with their fathers, had negative representations of their mothers. Severity of violence did not predict negative parental representations in the sample.     

A COMPELLING NEED FOR MANDATED USE OF SUPERVISED VISITATION PROGRAMS

Courts are frequently confronted by circumstances that do not justify termination of all contact with a parent, yet present legitimate concerns regarding the physical, emotional, or mental health of the child. Supervised visitation programs afford such parents and their children the opportunity to preserve the emotionally vital parent-child relationship while protecting the child, and sometimes the other parent, from harm. As the number of children deemed to be at risk continues to rise, demand for supervised visitation services steadily exceeds supply. This article proposes that all states should make supervised visitation programs universally available by enacting legislation that provides for their creation, regulation, and funding, together with clearly defined guidelines that mandate participation in supervised visitation programs whenever specific risk factors are present.     

Pat‐Downs But No Hugs: Why Prison Visitation Protocol Should be Changed to Help Keep Familial Structures Intact

In the United States there are almost three million children who have one or both parents incarcerated. Parental incarceration negatively impacts children in several ways. Visitation protocol varies across facilities nationwide with no modification in protocol for minors. Parental rights are disrupted by visitation protocol because of cost‐prohibitive access and extreme security measures. This Note proposes a model statute that would change visitation protocol to facilitate a clear‐cut set of visitation processes that are tailored to ensure prison safety while also fostering and maintaining a positive relationship between a minor child and his/her incarcerated parent.     

Inmates’ Experiences with Prison Visitation

Prison visitation is an important tool used to strengthen inmates’ social ties and incentivize good behavior in prison. Nevertheless, prison visits do not always go well for inmates, and we know little about why that is. Accordingly, in the current study we examined inmates’ varied experiences with prison visitation. We used data collected from 228 visited inmates who reported on 701 of their adult visitors, and identified whether visits typically made inmates feel guilty, stressed, sad, loved, comforted, and/or supported, and if inmates often argued with their visitors. Results from multilevel models indicated marked variability in inmates’ experiences with visitation, shaped by: who visits, how often they visit, inmates’ pre-prison behaviors, prison life, and demographic factors. These findings suggest that resources for conflict resolution may be needed during visitation, and that family-centric correctional interventions that recognize the variation we have uncovered here might hold promise in maximizing the effectiveness of visitation.     

Prison visitation as human ‘right’ or earned ‘privilege’? The differing tales of England/Wales,and Scotland

Prison visitation has been widely recognised as an important feature of a just and humane prison system, providing important benefits for prisoners and their family in maintaining ties. However, emphasis on maintaining prisoner–family ties over the sentence has remained a low priority for the prison service in England and Wales, with prison visits ideologically framed as a ‘privilege’ rather than a ‘right’ for prisoners. This paper contrasts England and Wales with Scotland where a diverging approach to supporting visitation and family contact has been implemented. In Scotland, a strong focus on human rights as a justification for these policies has occurred, in tandem with more palatable historical context of penal welfarism. This paper assesses differences between the two governmental approaches to prison visitation, situated in discussion of some of the broader resettlement outcomes which may be garnered via these policy responses.     

RAISING THE BAR: WHY SUPERVISED VISITATION PROVIDERS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO MEET STANDARDS FOR SERVICE PROVISION

The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NYSPCC) has provided a supervised visitation program (SVP) for high‐risk families for almost two decades. Parents needing supervised visitation often have histories of domestic violence, child abuse and neglect, mental illness or substance abuse, therefore providers delivering services must be adequately trained and supervised in order to protect the child from further harm during the visitation process. This article describes the need for SVP's, parental issues warranting consideration, the special needs of children in these circumstances, policy recommendations for provider standards, and a certification process to be developed and adopted in New York State.     

Fathers and sons: some effects of prolonged custody litigation

In all jurisdictions, for a variety of reasons, child custody and visitation issues may be reopened at any time. The children at issue, already likely to have been traumatized by problems in the parental marriage and subsequent separation and divorce, are affected further by still more litigation. The cases of three preadolescent boys who are the subjects of such prolonged litigation are presented. In each, the boys resided with their mothers as the primary custodial parents, the fathers having generally liberal rights of visitation. Regardless of which parent raised further court-related issues after the original agreements, the father-son relationship was most severely affected by continuing legal actions and related parental actions. Each child became increasingly fearful of the next anticipated visit by the father, who was cast into the role of villain by the child. Efforts to improve these damaged relationships through joint parent-child therapeutic attempts were largely of little avail. In spite of what may have been good experience with the person of the judge who dealt with earlier litigation, the children became fearful of what the next might be like or might do, viewing the judge as the person in power to whom parents and attorneys alike deferred. It is suggested that, wherever possible, prolonged litigation be avoided in the best interests of the child and of preserving necessary child-parent relationships.     

A REVIEW OF PROGRAMS DESIGNED TO PREPARE PARENTS FOR CUSTODY AND VISITATION MEDIATION

Mediation orientation programs are an increasingly common resource for parents preparing to mediate custody and visitation disputes. In this paper, we review empirical studies on program effectiveness and describe a range of programs in the U.S. Most are brief and psychoeducational in nature, focusing on the mediation process and the effects of conflict on children. Programs typically provide information through reading materials, slides, and videos, either in a group setting or online. Few evaluate program effectiveness. We offer suggestions for program evaluation and introduce an assessment‐based framework for providing individualized services for parents. Key Points for the Family Court Community

• ? Few Mediation Orientation programs have been empirically evaluated.
• ? Useful research designs would include (1) assessing participants both before and after the program and (2) comparing program participants to non‐participants.
• ? The psychoeducational components of Mediation Orientation programs may need to be tailored for low‐ and high‐conflict couples.

     

CHILDREN'S AND PARENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON CHILDREN'S PARTICIPATION IN DECISION MAKING AFTER PARENTAL SEPARATION AND DIVORCE*

This article outlines the views of children and parents involved in family law disputes, about the need for and appropriateness of children's participation in decisions regarding residence and contact arrangements. Ninety parents and 47 children (ranging in age from 6 to 18 years) who had been through parental separation, were interviewed. Both parents and children had a range of views about the general appropriateness and fairness of children being involved, but the great majority, particularly of parents, thought that children should have a say in these matters. Core findings of the study include the considerable influence that older children had over the arrangements either in the aftermath of the separation or in making further changes over time, and the higher stated need of children who had experienced violence, abuse, or high levels of conflict to be heard than those in less problematic and noncontested matters. Parents involved in contested proceedings supported the participation of children at a younger age than those who were not. There was a reasonable degree of agreement between parents and children about the need for children to be acknowledged and the value of their views being heard in the decision‐making process. Parents, however, expressed concern about the pressure and manipulation that children can face and exert in this process, whereas children were generally more concerned about the fairness of the outcomes, and maintaining their relationships with their parents and siblings.     

A NEW LOOK AT AN OLD ISSUE:

In 1997, the Office of Child Support Enforcement initiated the State Child Access and Visitation (AV) Grant Program, which involves annual awards of $10 million to states to promote the development of programs to alleviate access problems. Telephone interviews with 970 parents who used mediation, parent education, and supervised visitation programs funded by AV grants in nine states revealed that the programs are reaching diverse groups of parents including many low-income, non-White, and unmarried parents who receive no other type of access assistance. The programs also appear to be achieving the major objectives posited for them by the federal government. One-third to one-half of noncustodial parents in every program type reported that parent–child contact increased following program participation, with supervised visitation users who typically had the lowest levels of parent–child contact reporting a significant increase in the number of days of contact. A review of child support records for 173 program users in three states revealed that child support payments increased among participants following program participation, especially for never-married parents who paid a significantly higher proportion of what they owed. These findings are similar to results reported in a five-state study of mediation programs funded by AV grants that was conducted by the Office of the Inspector General. However, both studies have some serious limitations, including low response rates and the absence of a nontreatment comparison group.     

EVALUATING "NONTRADITIONAL" RELIGIOUS PRACTICE IN CHILD CUSTODY CASES

This article suggests a model for objectively evaluating "nontraditional" religious practices in child custody and visitation rights cases. The model draws a distinction between religious beliefs and religiously motivated behavior. This distinction assists the evaluator in approaching the family in an unbiased, objective, and respectful manner. Emphasis is placed on considering the religiously motivated behavior in a constitutionally sensitive procedure that simultaneously protects the fundamental rights of parents and children and the children's best interests.     

Who needs Daddy Warbucks: The Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program should apply to children of those who surrender their parental rights

Families who find themselves in the middle of child protective proceedings have three possible outcomes: (1) the family can reunify; (2) parents voluntarily surrender their parental rights; or (3) the parents have their rights terminated. While it seems we should support children in the second and third scenarios equally, having funding sources such as the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (KinGAP) only available to children of parents whose rights are terminated, does the opposite. This Note proposes amending the eligibility requirements of KinGAP to include children of parents who surrender their parental rights which would encourage positive safe placements for children.     

New York State of Mind: Parental Incarceration and Children's Visitation in New York State

The incarceration of a parent has a variety of negative effects on a child's psychological, academic, and developmental success. Children can end up in foster care as a result of the state terminating parental rights due to the parent's incarceration. Despite imprisonment of their parent(s), maintenance of visitation with the parent(s) is still important for their children. However, not all prisons have visitation programs that are suitable to visiting children. This Note proposes a model state statute that will recognize the importance of visitation, implement “child friendly” visitation programs, facilitate training for prison staff, and provide transportation for children in major cities to the prison facilities.     

AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF SUPERVISED ACCESS AND CUSTODY EXCHANGE SERVICES

The detrimental effect of parental conflict in protracted child custody and visitation disputes is well established in the literature. However, little is known about the impact of parental conflict on children when visitation takes place in a protected setting. Part of a larger study that examined the broader issues related to parental and child involvement in a supervised access and custody exchange service, this article specifically explores the influence of parental participation on child well-being. This exploratory effort reveals that children's level of adjustment remained stable over 6 months of participation while visitation returned to court-ordered levels and interparental contact was precluded by staff intervention.     

Prison Visitation and Recidivism

Scholars and policymakers have called for greater attention to understanding the causes of and solutions to improved prisoner reentry outcomes, resulting in renewed attention to a factor—prison visitation—long believed to reduce recidivism. However, despite the theoretical arguments advanced on its behalf and increased calls for evidence-based policy, there remains little credible empirical research on whether a beneficial relationship between visitation and recidivism in fact exists. Against that backdrop, this study employs propensity score matching analyses to examine whether visitation of various types and in varying amounts, or “doses,” is in fact negatively associated with recidivism outcomes among a cohort of released prisoners. The analyses suggest that visitation has a small to modest effect in reducing recidivism of all types, especially property offending, and that the effects may be most pronounced for spouse or significant other visitation. We discuss the implications of the findings for research and policy.