Presumption of Joint Custody

INDIA has no laws around joint custody. In the US only Thirty-five states plus the District of Columbia have statutes that explicitly authorize joint custody as a presumption or strong preference. READ THE STATUTES HERE

In the following oped article in the Washington Post, David Levy, CEO of the Children’s Rights Council advocates the presumption of joint custody and posits that “sole-custody court battles often drive mothers and fathers, pardon the expression, “nuts,” especially if they were mentally challenged to begin with. And violence can’t be predicted scientifically”. He uses the example of Mark Castillo who killed his three children as an example of what may happen when parents are driven “nuts”

In response to this, Joan Meier, executive director of the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project at George Washington University Law School responds in another oped piece in the Washington Post, uses this extreme example to make some unsubstantiated points like

• “Mothers rarely fabricate or exaggerate the dangers they see”.
• “Bitter custody disputes” do not arise in a vacuum — most arise in the context of mothers seeking to end abuse or protect their children.
• “acting normal” with an abuser can be a survival strategy
• Contrary to stereotypes, most divorcing mothers do not seek to deprive the children of their father.
• Men who abuse their partners often pose a threat to their children. Most women seeking to restrict fathers’ access to their children are doing so out of legitimate fear for their well-being.
• And too many children are delivered to dangerous fathers by family courts that prioritize fathers’ “rights” over children’s safety.

Really Joan???. Help me understand the following two data points in that case (data from the US Dept of Health and Human Services)

Mothers are more than twice as likely as fathers to abuse their children

Mothers are more than twice as likely as fathers to kill their children