ABSTRACT

In this paper, we conducted a critical community-engaged Ontario family law case review of 46 cases from 2019 where intimate partner violence was identified. We explored the extent to which judges identified and addressed intimate partner violence and whether the gender of judges impacted on trial outcomes and judges’ parental assessments. We found that judges de-gendered the language of violence, which impacted trial outcomes (e.g. more rulings of unsupervised access for fathers despite them having been violent) and a mutualisation of responsibility by referring to the violence as ‘conflict.’ We also found that male judges were more likely to negatively assess the mothers as both parents and witnesses. We call for more research that explores whether the changes to the Canadian federal Divorce Act (which includes ‘family violence’) will have an impact on the manner in which intimate partner violence is identified and/or referred to by family law judges, and if and how this influences the weighting of salient outcomes in Ontario family court cases.

摘要

在本文中，我们对2019年以来发现的46例亲密伴侣暴力事件进行了社区参与的安大略省家庭法律案件的重要审查。我们探讨了法官在多大程度上确定并解决了亲密伴侣的暴力行为，以及法官的性别是否对审判结果和法官的父母评估产生影响。我们发现，法官对暴力用语的性别去了性别歧视，从而影响了审判结果（例如，尽管父亲有暴力行为，但父亲在无监督的情况下获得更多的裁决），并通过将暴力称为“冲突”来实现责任的共同化。我们还发现，男性法官更有可能对母亲既作为父母又作为证人进行消极评估。我们呼吁开展更多研究，以探讨加拿大联邦《离婚法》是否发生了变化 （包括“家庭暴力”）将影响家庭法法官确定和/或提及亲密伴侣暴力的方式，以及这是否以及如何影响安大略省家庭法院案件中重要结果的权重。