IV
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. CON. RES. 182
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to child custody, child abuse,
and victims of domestic and family violence.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
OCTOBER 30, 1997
Mrs. MORELLA (for herself, Mr. SCHUMER, Mr. DAVIS of Virginia, Mrs.
JOHNSON of Connecticut, Ms. FURSE, Ms. CARSON, Mr. VENTO, Mr. LA-
FALCE, Mr. STARK, Mr. FROST, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. HINCHEY, and Mr.
SANDERS) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to child cus-
tody, child abuse, and victims of domestic and family
violence.
Whereas domestic violence has serious detrimental effects on
children, even when they do not directly witness such vio-
lence;
Whereas courts still hold women to higher standards of con-
duct than they do men;
Whereas gender bias still exists within the courts, particularly
those making and affecting child custody determinations;
Whereas gender bias has long existed and still exists within
the mental health system;
•HCON 182 IH
Whereas, as a result of this gender bias, many myths are
that women make false allegations of domestic violence or
child abuse, and most particularly of child sexual abuse,
during divorce and custody proceedings;
Whereas false accusations by women are in fact rare, occur-
ring no more often than do other false reports of crimes,
such as bank robbery;
Whereas the myth that women make false accusations is so
widely believed that many child protective service agents
have policies of not bothering to investigate such allega-
tions when made during the pendency of divorce or cus-
tody proceedings or only superficially investigate such al-
legations;
Whereas there are many myths that fathers are discriminated
against in custody proceedings, even though studies show
that fathers fighting for custody actually win sole custody
or joint custody in 40 to 70 percent of these disputes;
Whereas the American Psychological Association’s Presi-
dential Task Force on Violence and the Family has found
in a 1996 Presidential Report that Congress views as au-
thoritative on questions of domestic violence, child abuse,
and custody determination that—
(1) fathers who abuse their children’s mothers are
more likely to dispute custody and visitation than are fa-
thers who are not violent;
(2) there is no reliable data to support the phenome-
non of ‘‘parental alienation’’ syndrome, although courts
and custody evaluators frequently use that term and
other inappropriate terms to discount the children’s fear
in hostile and psychologically abusive situations; and
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(3) psychological evaluators not trained in domestic
violence ignore or minimize the violence and give inappro-
priate pathological labels to women’s responses to chronic
victimization, including ‘‘parental alienation’’ to blame
mothers for their children’s reasonable fear or anger to-
ward their violent fathers.
Whereas many courts and professionals use the baseless pa-
rental alienation syndrome to force mothers into joint or
shared parenting arrangements or to give custody to fa-
thers, especially when mothers try to protect themselves
or their children from men who abuse them or their chil-
dren;
Whereas almost every custody evaluator or judge recognizes
how important familiar routines and objects are to a
child, particularly in times of stress, but often fails to
recognize the importance for the child of maintaining its
living arrangement with the child’s primary caretaker
parent;
Whereas Congress never intended that the Parental Kidnap-
ping Prevention Act be used—
(1) to encourage forcing shared parenting arrange-
ments when it is not in the child’s best interest;
(2) to prohibit an abused or protective parent from
protecting themselves or their child;
(3) as a tool to punish a parent, without regard for
the needs of the child, by removing physical custody of
a child from a fit abused or protective parent; or
(4) as a tool to punish abused or protective parents
who act to protect themselves or their children;
Whereas when there is domestic or family violence or major
discord between the parents, shared parenting arrange-
•HCON 182 IH
ments, couples counseling, or mediation arrangements
only exacerbate the difficulties of the children and give
the abusive parent more tools with which to victimize the
other members of the family;
Whereas children who grow up not seeing abusive parents
clearly held accountable for their abuse are reinforced in
believing that domestic and family violence are socially
acceptable and effective means of behavior; and
Whereas every State has legislation or judicial decisions that
base its custody determinations on what is in the best in-
terests of the child: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that—
(1) for purposes of determining child custody, it
is in the best interest of children to have a presump-
tion that children should have their main physical
residence with their primary caretaker parent unless
that parent is unfit;
(2) for purposes of determining child custody, it
is not in the best interest of children to—
(A) force parents to share custody over the
objection of one or both parents or when there
is a history of domestic or family violence;
(B) punish abused or protective parents
who protect themselves or their children;
(C) presume that allegations of domestic
and family violence are likely to be made falsely
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or for tactical advantage during custody and di-
vorce proceedings; and
(D) make ‘‘friendly parent’’ provisions a
factor when there is abuse by one parent
against the other or a child;
(3) child abuse and child sexual abuse allega-
tions should be fully and impartially investigated re-
gardless of when they are raised or whether the child
has recanted the allegation;
(4) States should be far more protective of vic-
tims of domestic and family violence in custody and
visitation determinations and not order mediation,
couples counseling, shared custody, mutual orders of
protection, unsupervised visitation, or other meas-
ures when they may endanger victims of domestic
and family violence; and
(5) States should provide training in domestic
violence and child abuse, as they impact custody,
child support and visitation determinations, to all
professionals who interact with children and parents
(including judges, attorneys, guardians ad litem,
therapists, mental health professionals, custody eval-
uators, child protective services personnel, and court
appointed special advocates).
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