Mediating child custody cases when there is a history of
domestic violence, child abuse, or substance abuse is complex and
controversial. This two-part paper outlines a quantitative study examining the
impacts of reported historical domestic violence, child abuse, and/or substance
abuse on one year of online child custody courthouse mediations in a suburban
county in California. The empirical results demonstrate that there were
statistically significant negative relationships between domestic violence,
child abuse, and substance abuse and mediation outcome complexity, as well as a
statistically significant negative relationship between shuttle diplomacy and
mediation outcome complexity. However, all of these relationships were found to
be weak. The sensitivity of these mediations means that there are important
mandatory safety protocols in place, affecting the mediation process. The
humanistic approach to mediation, which is particularly well suited to these
cases, along with conflict transformation, which allows for parents to make
radical changes to their lives, are also considered as helpful frameworks for
understanding the mediation process. The first part of this article sets the
stage for the study. The conclusion, which will be published in an upcoming
issue of Dispute Resolution Journal,
will cover the study’s methodology and results.