Domestic violence has the potential to harm adults and children in physical, mental, emotional, and economic ways. It even affects child custody orders.
This article will explain what domestic violence is and how it affects child custody in Arizona. If you have any questions after you read this article, consult a family law attorney for advice.
People who have been victimized by domestic violence often don't believe they're really victims unless they have the scars and marks to prove it. They may not take advantage of services designed to help them. But Arizona's laws provide that a variety of conduct qualifies as domestic violence:
Acts that qualify as domestic violence include physical assault, threats, harassment, intimidation, stalking, unlawful imprisonment, trespassing, damage to property, kidnapping, and photographing and secretly watching victims without their consent, among other things. Abuse can be electronic (e.g., internet-based), telephonic, written, or personal.
Family and household members are targeted for protection under the law. They include:
There is frequently a question about what qualifies as a romantic or sexual relationship. To resolve the issue, judges look at four factors:
If you're a victim of domestic violence, you can go to court and ask for a domestic abuse protection order. AZPOINT, from the Arizona Judicial Branch, offers an online guided interview to help you fill out the forms.
Arizona provides several services for victims of domestic violence. A New Leaf, a nonprofit, provides a comprehensive listing of organizations that offer direct services, like shelter-based housing, counseling, and case management. The Arizona Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, also a nonprofit, lists more information and resources for victims.
On the governmental side, the Arizona Department of Economic Security has a Domestic Violence Program that can assist victims and the Arizona Department of Health Services has written a fact sheet, including hotline numbers, for those who have suffered abuse.
Victims can also call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. It's available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
There are two kinds of custody: legal and physical. Physical custody involves the place where a child lives and receives basic daily care, like feeding and bathing. Legal involves a parent's right to make important decisions for a child about things like health and education.
Under Arizona child custody laws, judges must consider a number of factors to determine the best interests of a child and decide who should have custody. Two of the factors directly involve domestic violence:
Arizona courts view evidence of domestic violence as contrary to the best interests of the child. This means that a parent who has committed domestic violence is less likely to get custody. In fact, if domestic violence has occurred, parents can't share joint legal custody.
Judges are required to make the safety of the child and the victim the top priority in the case, and to consider a perpetrator's history of making threats or causing harm to others. But first, they must decide whether it's more likely than not that abuse ever occurred. To do so, judges will examine:
If, after examining the evidence, the court finds that a parent committed acts of domestic violence against the other parent, then the court must apply a "rebuttable presumption" (a legal assumption) that giving custody to the abuser is not in the child's best interests. The judge can only rule that the perpetrator has defeated that presumption by looking at all the following factors:
If the judge finds that there was domestic violence, then the court's top priority is to protect the victimized parent or child from potential harm. The abusive parent can't be awarded "parenting time" (Arizona's term for visitation) until that parent convinces the judge that parenting time won't endanger the child or impair the child's emotional development. Even if the court agrees, it has to protect the child and the other parent from danger, and can:
In very serious cases where there is a pattern and history of child abuse, a relative, foster parent, physician, licensed welfare agency, or the Arizona Department of Economic Security can file a petition asking the court to terminate a parent's rights. Termination of parental rights means that a parent loses all rights to both the physical and legal custody of a child.