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"Paper Abuse": When All Else Fails, Batterers Use Procedural Stalking

NCJ Number
234815
Journal
Violence Against Women Volume: 17 Issue: 5 Dated: May 2011 Pages: 637-650
Author(s)
Susan L. Miller; Nicole L. Smolter
Date Published
May 2011
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This research explores the continuation of control as women encounter "paper abuse."
Abstract
Using data from in-depth interviews with women who have exited violent relationships, attorneys, and practitioners/policy specialists, this research note explores the continuation of control as women encounter "paper abuse." The barrage of men's frivolous lawsuits, false reports of child abuse, and other system-related manipulations exerts power, forces contact, and financially burdens their ex-partners. Although these acts are not new, the significance of this continuing abuse has not been fully explored by researchers. Yet attorneys and practitioners recognize the need for better documentation to strengthen protections for women still forced to contend with their former batterers. (Published Abstract)