Shelter from the Storm: Using Jurisdictional Statutes to Protect Victims of Domestic Violence after the Violence against Women Act of 2000
![handle is hein.journals/coljgl13 and id is 107 raw text is: SHELTER.FROM THE STORM: USING
JURISDICTIONAL STATUTES TO PROTECT
VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AFTER
THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT OF
2000
DEBORAH M. GOELMAN*
[M]other has no lodging, no money and constant oppression. If
[she] wants to try for a better life with the two children, the court gives her
its blessings. Slavery was abolished 125 years ago and so was oppression.
The mother's condition following her divorce has been analogous to that of
a slave chained to false accusations, constant allegations and hatred. A
human being deserves better.'
Domestic violence fuels many of the nation's bitterly contested
interstate custody cases. It is an underlying issue in most parental abduction
cases, which occur at an estimated rate of 203,900 per year.2 Despite the
role of domestic abuse in interstate custody cases, in the past, legislators
enacted jurisdictional laws to prevent forum-shopping and parental
abduction without considering their impact on domestic violence survivors.
In recent years, jurisdictional laws such as the Parental Kidnapping
Prevention Act3 and the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and
Enforcement Act4 have begun to incorporate safety provisions for victims
* B.A., University of Michigan; J.D., New York University School of Law. The
author has practiced domestic violence law since 1993 and served most recently as Deputy
Director, Policy Team, Violence Against Women Office, U.S. Department of Justice, until
the team was dismantled in March 2002. The author thanks Frances Cook, Billie Lee
Dunford-Jackson, Barbara J. Hart, Patricia Hoff, Darren Mitchell, Marnie Shiels, and Joan
Zorza for their review of this article.
1 Schuyler v. Ashcraft, 680 A.2d 765, 774 (N.J. Super. Ct. App. Div. 1996).
2 Heather Hammer et al., U.S. Dept. of Justice, Children Abducted by Family
Members: National Estimates and Characteristics 4 (Oct. 2002), available at
httR://www.ncirs.org/pdffilesl/oiidp/196466.pdf (providing estimated number of children
who were victims of family abduction in 1999).
3 28 U.S.C. § 1738A (2003).
4 Drafted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
(NCCUSL) in 1997.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/coljgl13&div=9&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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