DV abusers win custody at the same rate as non-abusive parents

In the US, roughly 100,000 child custody cases are contested each year, and studies indicate that two-thirds of them involve domestic violence. Abusive fathers are more than twice as likely as non-abusive fathers to seek sole custody. The disturbing outcome: research shows that allegations of domestic violence have no demonstrated effect on the rate at which abusers are awarded custody. Abusers receive unsupervised custody and visitation at statistically the same rate as non-abusers, and fathers who litigate custody through family court obtain primary or joint physical custody in approximately 70% of cases. This means that survivors who flee abuse are routinely forced to hand their children to the person who abused them — unsupervised, for days or weeks at a time. Many survivors report that the abuser uses custody litigation itself as a continuation of abuse (filing repeated motions, demanding schedule changes, using exchanges to intimidate). This persists because family courts emphasize 'both parents' involvement as a default, custody evaluators receive minimal DV-specific training, and the legal standard of 'best interest of the child' is applied without adequate weight given to a pattern of coercive control that may not involve direct child abuse.