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Abstract: 

Battered women have long restricted their lives to keep their abusers from locating them. Many victims have moved away from their abusers, sometimes numerous times, attempting to escape the violence and gain safety. If at all possible, abused mothers usually take their children with them. They do so for a number of reasons: because they are almost always their children’s prime, if not sole, custodial caretakers; to protect the children, because between half and three-quarters of spousal batterers deliberately physically abuse (and virtually all abusers emotionally abuse) their children. In fact, approximately half of battered women who permanently leave their abusers do so because of something seriously abusive that their partners have done to their children. Although many of these women believe that they signed on to their marriages (or relationships) for better or worse, they understand that their children never chose to be in an abusive relationship. Several cases are cited that the battering spouse is often granted custody of the children.

Keywords: domestic violence as defense of abduction; motor vehicle records; postal records; voter registration

Affiliations:  1: Editor, Domestic Violence Report.