Lawmakers, experts and advocates across California are pushing for legislation that would make judges take regular training in recognizing domestic violence and child abuse. The crusade is an attempt to lessen the chances that a judge will place a child in the custody of a dangerous parent. Family court judges routinely decide that domestic abuse claims are not credible and grant custody to the allegedly abusive parent. But making the wrong call can end with children losing their lives.
This term is being used to implicate two people as being the instigators and perpetrators in a domestic abuse situation. However, among experts who have studied domestic violence, it is largely considered a myth, at least in the way most people frame it.