Why Divorce Cases Involving Allegations Of Abuse Still Confound Family Courts
A new law aims to distinguish between bitter splits and truly dangerous ones and get women and children out of harm’s way.
January 15, 2021
Kate’s son, Luke, was giggly and compassionate. At three, he noticed when there were no gifts for his mom under the Christmas tree. Most of her photographs of the preschooler were destroyed; after taking their son’s life, her estranged husband set the family home on fire. (Illustration: Phuong Nguyen)
Their escape that summer was something of a miracle.
It was August 1997 and Kate, then 43 years old, and her son, Luke, three and a half, had been living with her husband’s escalating emotional and psychological abuse for years. Over the course of their five-year marriage, Kate had watched as her husband’s mental health deteriorated to the point where he stopped working as a contractor. Controlling and belittling his wife became his full-time preoccupation.