Florida Divorce * Child Custody * Domestic Violence Law Lawyer | Boca Raton

Nothing else has stamped out domestic violence yet.

One relatively recent, creative approach established in Massachusetts: educational theater.

Theater with a message. Plays depicting different types of domestic abuse (sexual, violent, verbal, etc.) - and targeting different audiences (civilian vs. military, adults vs. children, etc.).

The rationale is that an engaging story carries more impact than a thousand lectures.

The programs educates both victims and “bystanders” in a position to help, highlighting warning signs and illustrating how to be part of the solution.

Performers lead discussions after each performance.

Read more in this Woburn [MA] Daily Times Chronicle article: Fighting domestic abuse through theatre and the Deana’s Educational Theater website.

The Florida Department of Children and Families receives about 1,000 reports of abuse per month in Lee County that must be investigated.

Investigations must begin within twenty-four hours, three if a child is believed to be in imminent danger.

An investigation takes at least 4 hours of interviews with the child, the person reporting the abuse, family members, neighbors, teachers, etc.

Investigators typically investigate two reports per day.

Background checks of every adult in the home are par for the course.

Investigators are college-educated and receive ten weeks of training plus substantial oversight and mentoring.

And still children die of abuse or neglect.

One six year old child recently died - after three separate reports of abuse, including one from his school.

DCF investigated but concluded that the child was not at risk and, later, at low risk.

That child was later killed by his stepfather, who now faces criminal charges.

Too little, too late.

Read more in this News-Press guest editorial: DCF needs community’s help protecting children and this WXTX Fox 4 News Team Coverage piece: Jenkins Case File.

When children are taken into foster care due to alleged abandonment, abuse or neglect, it sets in motion a series of events, including various hearings in juvenile dependency court.

Juvenile dependency court is unlike any other court.

Many of the families of removed children are indigent. Parents attorneys’ and children’s attorneys are typically court-appointed. They handle hundreds of cases per year.

They barely know their clients, let alone the parents and the family’s circumstances.

Yet these overburdened court-appointed attorneys are the just about the only thing standing between children - and removal from their parents and families.

The courts don’t allow much time for parents to defend return of children to their families. In California, sometimes just five minutes or less.

That’s all the time a judge has to get the facts and determine the best outcome. Informed only by attorneys and case workers who have inadequate time and too large caseloads to sort out the truth and come up with solutions.

And so children are removed from their homes … whether or not they should be …

Read horror story after horror story in this troubling Mercury News article: How rushed justice fails our kids - BROKEN FAMILIES, BROKEN COURTS: A MERCURY NEWS INVESTIGATION.

A Tennessee husband was just granted a divorce and shared custody of his kids under unusual circumstances. His wife was not present.

She, allegedly struggling with a drinking problem, had an affair with her 17 year old student, after having another affair with a woman. Her own family described her as “troubled”.

She would reportedly lock herself in her bathroom and drink, go into rages against her husband and even her children, eventually abusing one of her kids for revealing details of her affair.

The husband is charged with killing the teenager involved in the affair.

The wife is said to have absconded with their children months ago.

The Tennessee court has appointed an attorney ad litem and a guardian ad litem to search for and make recommendations for the best interests of the couple’s boys.

Every divorce is unique. And some are more complicated than others.

And some cases put judges in the unenviable position of having to make very difficult decisions.

Read more in these Knoxville News Sentinel articles: McLean granted divorce - Judge orders attorney to search for children of slaying suspect and Judge grants McLean divorce, orders search for children.

One hundred and one Florida women died of it in the first six months of 2007.

Domestic violence.

About forty-five of the women fleeing it and sixty-five of their children in central Florida end up in a shelter for safety. One Orlando shelter is building a children’s after-care center, a school and a daycare center.

The first step to safety may be getting to a shelter. (If an abuser discovers their location and comes, he or she faces stiff legal penalties.) Registration can be anonymous.

Domestic violence knows no socioeconomic boundaries. A shelter’s CEO describes how the husband of a board president of a girl’s school, a wealthy woman, and her daughter were murdered by the woman’s husband.

Read more in this Orlando Sentinel article: Sheltering women in crisis.

Dallas, Texas has more than its share of human trafficking in illegal aliens smuggled into this country against their will.

Of the approximately 16,000 victims of fraud, force, coercion and abuse per year, about twenty percent wind up in Texas.

These illegal immigrants are often victims of domestic violence and abuse.

Immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, are often hesitant to speak out or seek help.

And so four women per day are murdered by their abusers.

But help is available in most communities. From shelters. And from nonprofit associations.

Read more in this Dallas Morning News editorial: Abuse of immigrants in focus.

California legislators are considering passing a bill that would pave the way for the state to establish the first free, publicly accessible website in the nation to identify perpetrators convicted of domestic violence, specifically, at least one felony or two misdemeanors.

The intent of the website would be to empower prospective dating partners and significant others to easily and inexpensively “check out” someone whose behavior spawns some concerns - ideally, before they get in too deep.

The sites would also provide information on obtaining restraining orders for protection from domestic violence.

Other online databases now in existence are restricted to law enforcement personnel. Making the information freely accessible to the public could save lives.

In at least one well-publicized murder, the parents of the victim had suspicions about her boyfriend. But, being unable to afford an investigator, they didn’t learn of his three felony convictions for attacking women until after he killed the mother of his child and her mother.

Development and maintenance costs would be funded by fines paid by perpetrators.

Read more in this Government Computer News article: Bill would let Californians screen dates and this New York Times article: Bill Proposes Database of Offenders to Aid Dating.

It is not uncommon for a parent to ask how far they may go in punishing a rebellious, defiant child - what therapists often call an “oppositional” child.

For example, a NYC Father beat his 7 year old stepchild (Child) as physical punishment for her misbehavior.

Child dies as a result of latest beating.

Father is charged in the Child’s death.

But is it murder?

Is it even illegal?

Physical discipline as such is not illegal in most states.

What type of physical punishment crosses beyond discipline, to abuse that might lead to the state taking your child away from you - or to abuse that might lead to criminal sentencing?

Many parents expect there to be a firm standard they can look to. But, surprisingly enough, the law in many states doesn’t offer clear guidelines, what lawyers call bright lines.

The Constitution protects a parent’s right to parent in the way that the parent thinks best and legislators are reluctant to make hard and fast rules as to what is acceptable or unacceptable.

So both the civil and criminal cases vary quite a bit from case to case and are not always consistent or reconcilable.

What’s a parent to do? Tread carefully may be a prudent rule of thumb.

Read more in this New York Times article: Murder Case Tests Limits on Parents’ Right to Hit.

Child abuse occurs most frequently during November, December and January, according to the University of Miami Child Protection Team, which sees 1,500 cases per year.

Recent horrific incidents include a woman allegedly stabbing her autistic nephew in the eyes and a mother allegedly beating her one year old baby to the extent of twelve broken bones.

The stresses of the holidays are the reason, the final straw - and they actually continue after the last of the Christmas decorations and the confetti are gone.

But the underlying problems were likely in the making for quite some time.

People under stress tend to take it out on those who are most vulnerable … children, the disabled and also the dependent elderly. The stresses of caregiving likely contribute to such incidents.

The number of child abuse cases rises from year to year.

But resources are available to help.

January is just beginning.

Note that the Florida child abuse hotline is 1-800-96-ABUSE.

Read more in this South Florida NBC 6 TV article: Recent Child Abuse Allegations Focus Attention On S. Fla. Kids In Jeopardy.

The holidays aren’t over yet.

And during the time from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, one largely hidden statistic on the rise is: child abuse.

Throughout the season of good cheer, parents are under much more stress than usual. And that stress leads to abuse of children.

Not just more abuse, but more severe abuse.

Often by parents who, afterwards, can’t believe they did it.

Yet recognizing the stress and the risk, coupled with simple techniques, such as having a friend watch the kids or deep breathing, can buy the time necessary for parents to calm down and avoid abusive acts.

Read more in this KTTC TV [Rochester, MN] article: Holiday Stress Can Lead to Child Abuse.