"Divorce can be a dangerous process for victims of domestic violence." That is how 3L Ruth Perrin starkly began a paper that the ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence (CDSV) recently selected as the winner of its 2015 writing competition.
In "Overcoming Biased Views of Gender and Victimhood in Custody Evaluations When Domestic Violence Is Alleged," Ms. Perrin analyzed the use of independent evaluators to assist courts in assigning custody of children. Only one state, California, currently requires that evaluators have knowledge of domestic violence's impact on victims and children, despite research showing that evaluators with inadequate knowledge tend to make unsafe recommendations. The paper goes on to argue that the beliefs of evaluators are the result of implicit biases and then proposes strategies to overcome them.
In making its selection, the CDSV noted how impressed it was with Ms. Perrin's in-depth exploration of the issue. For her part, she was surprised and honored to be chosen.
"I didn't expect to win," she said. "I'd actually assumed they had picked a winner already because the winner was announced later than I expected, so I was surprised and so excited when I got the email from the ABA Commission that I'd won."
She first wrote the paper in the spring semester of 2015 as a participant in the Domestic Violence Project, a clinic taught by Professor Joan S. Meier. Professor Meier encouraged several students to submit their papers to writing contests, including the one sponsored by the ABA CDSV.
Professor Meier also suggested the topic of how custody evaluators are affected by implicit gender bias. It was a good fit for Ms. Perrin, who had professional first-hand experience.
"...the custody evaluators often dismissed the allegations as either untrue or unimportant. I was interested in exploring why that was the case."
– Ruth Perrin, 3L, and winner of the ABA CDSV 2015 Writing Competition
"I had previous internship experience working with cases that required professional custody evaluators, and I had seen the way that, when there were allegations of domestic violence or child abuse by the mother, the custody evaluators often dismissed the allegations as either untrue or unimportant," she said. "I was interested in exploring why that was the case."
Going forward, the winning paper will be published in the American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law, as well as on the CDSV website. For Ms. Perrin, she will continue to work toward her goal of advocating for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault.