After years of budget cuts to state services, the program, which serves over 8,000 victims annually, had endured a 70% decrease in funding by 2013 and was forced to close its offices on Mondays. This closure was the first time in the program's 25-year history that advocates were not available when court was in session.

The RICADV led our member agencies, SOAR, allied organizations and community supporters in the effort to convince our legislators to restore funding.

It was an amazing victory when the Rhode Island legislature agreed to restore $100,000 to the program, a much-needed lifeline for domestic violence victims. Special thanks are due to Senate President M. Teresa Paiva Weed, Senator Maryellen Goodwin, and former Representative Elaine A. Coderre for their support.

Before writing the protocol, the FADVTF first needed to identify the current practices that police departments were utilizing and the challenges they were facing with these types of cases. To do so, they decided to conduct a statewide survey of all police departments.

In February 2008, Professor Daniel J. Knight from Salve Regina University’s Criminal Justice Program agreed to direct the survey project.

Professor Knight’s graduate student research team conducted a statewide survey of local law enforcement agencies and the Rhode Island State Police. The research team used three data collection methods:

• Surveying local law enforcement agencies to determine their current practices and protocols when responding to domestic violence calls involving firearms
• Conducting three key informant interviews to gain further insight on the issue from state and federal perspectives
• Reviewing and analyzing state and federal laws relating to firearms and domestic violence

The research team completed their data collection in January 2009.

SOAR and the Child Custody and Visitation Advisory Committee (CCVAC) examined the strengths and gaps of the child custody and visitation process in cases involving domestic violence.

In addition to meeting with attorneys and judges, SOAR held numerous focus groups and collected 101 surveys from domestic violence survivors who had gone through, or were currently going through, the Rhode Island child custody and visitation process.

From the information gathered, the committee identified some of the key problems of the Rhode Island family court system’s child custody and visitation process:

Children continue to suffer violence and abuse during the child custody and visitation process.

Violence continued to be a part of children’s lives, even as their victimized parent sought safety, in an overwhelming majority of the cases reviewed.

• 89% of the survey respondents stated that their children witnessed domestic violence before and/or during the custody and visitation process.
• According to survey respondents, 71% of their children were also abused by the abusive parent, and many of these children suffered from more than one type of abuse (Figure 1).
• Moreover, 53% of the survey respondents reported that the child abuse occurred during visitation.
• In spite of this reality, 58% of the participants’ cases where abuse was present were decided in favor of joint custody.
• According to the survey results, the majority of children suffered some negative emotional and/or psychological consequences from the process (Figure 3). At least two parents in the survey commented on suicidal behavior by their children: “(My) five-year-old said she didn’t want to live, life was 'too difficult.'"
  

Services to protect children are insufficient.

• Focus group participants had very little information about the Supervised Visitation Program. The main source of information they had about this service came from other survivors or another third party.
• Focus group participants also expressed a distrust of the Supervised Visitation Program.
• 75% of the survey participants who accessed supervised visitation services were unsatisfied with the supervision. “Lack of proper supervision” was the most frequent explanation for this dissatisfaction.

Child custody and visitation cases drive victims of domestic violence into debt and poverty.

• 73% of victims surveyed were employed at the beginning of the child custody case.
• About one-third reported to have lost their jobs as a direct consequence of the custody case. Another one-third perceived that the custody case had negative consequences on their employment (Figure 5).
• According to the case reviews conducted, most cases had a final disposition in approximately one year, although subsequent miscellaneous motions made different proceedings ongoing. One woman reported being involved in different court proceedings for about 17 years.
• For many survivors, the court process resembled the cycle of violence in abusive relationships (Figure 6).
  • “The tension phase” manifested itself by the abuser’s escalation of conflict and tension. 
  • During “the explosion phase,” the abuser used the court, police, and attorneys as a tool to harass or harm the victim.
  • In the “honeymoon phase,” the conflict diminished.

Victims of domestic violence continue to suffer abuse and violence.

• 76% of victims reported being abused during a visitation exchange, with most suffering more than one type of abuse (Figure 8).
• 81% of the visitation exchanges took place in the victim’s or batterer’s home.
• Participants in the focus groups chronicled being followed, harassed, threatened, and assaulted, even in cases where a valid restraining order was in effect. Some of this intimidation took place inside the courthouse.

Domestic violence is minimized.

• 82% of the victims interviewed in focus groups said that domestic violence was either minimized or filtered out of their child custody and visitation case.
• In 64% of the cases where the court took action after a domestic violence report was made, the most common action was granting a restraining order.
• Restraining orders granted in child custody and visitation cases are treated as a civil matter and are not enforceable by the police.
• 57% of the participants’ cases have joint custody despite the existence of domestic violence.