Obtaining the full picture in domestic violence cases is essential in the custody/visitation context as in other types of risk assessment. See, Risk Assessment. Unfortunately, everyone involved in custody determinations – custody evaluators, psychologists and psychiatrists, guardians ad litem, mediators, parent coordinators and judges – too often ignores allegations of domestic violence or actively punishes women who disclose the violence.

• Domestic violence is rarely a problem for divorcing couples involved in child custody disputes.
• Domestic violence ends with separation for abused women.
• As long as children are not abused directly, they are not harmed by exposure to domestic violence.
• Since domestic violence is behavior between adults, it is not relevant to determination of child custody.
• Family courts, lawyers, and court-related services, such as mediation and custody evaluation, can assess the needs of abused women and their children as well as the impact of the batterer.
• Legal and mental health services for abused women and their children separating from batterers are readily accessible and well coordinated.
• There are no apparent solutions and community strategies to the complex dilemmas posed by abused women and their children separating from batterers.

(Jaffe & Crooks, Common Misconceptions in Addressing Domestic Violence in Child Custody Disputes, 2003 at 58-62.)