Nancy Thoennes

Center for Policy Research

As part of the Denver Custody Mediation Project, we contrast individuals willing to mediate and adjudicate custody and visitation disputes. Interviews with 279 mediation minded individuals and 111 who reject the mediation offer reveal that mediation is more attractive to individuals who score high on traditional socioeconomic indicaton. The mediati...

This paper explores the relative importance of perceived dispute characteristics and mediator skills for predicting the settlement of child custody cases. The cases studied were child custody and visitation disputes mediated in three different legal jurisdictions: The Los Angeles Conciliation Court; the Hennepin County, Minnesota, Superior Court; a...

After approximately 15 years of research on court-based dependency mediation programs, answers have emerged for many, but not all, of the questions that surround dependency mediation. This article explores what has been learned about court-based dependency mediation through research and what new and persisting questions remain. The article reviews...

This article summarizes the results of an evaluation of mediation services in three court-based programs. Among the issues considered are client evaluations of the mediation experience and their assessments of immediate and long-term effects. Two comparison groups are utilized: parents who contested custody without the offer of court-based mediatio...

Surveys with 94 administrators of supervised visitation programs, 51 family court judges, and 40 administrators of child protective services agencies provide a national picture of supervised visitation services, their utility, and areas of unmet need. Although the programs are perceived to fill an important need, they struggle to survive financiall...

In 1997, the Office of Child Support Enforcement initiated the State Child Access and Visitation (AV) Grant Program, which involves annual awards of $10 million to states to promote the development of programs to alleviate access problems. Telephone interviews with 970 parents who used mediation, parent education, and supervised visitation programs...

What do reports by clients suggest for the development of mediation?

This study examines mediation in three dependency courts in the United States and identifies major policy questions regarding the use of mediation in these proceedings.

This article presents the results of an evaluation of five California counties utilizing court-based mediation services to process child maltreatment cases filed with the court. The programs employed a variety of different service delivery approaches and targeted cases at a variety of different stages of case processing. The results indicate that m...

This article summarizes policies and procedures used by various courts in the United States in responding to domestic violence. Over 200 courts and services were contacted under a grant from the State Justice Institute in developing this survey. The article covers the profile of mediation services, mediator training regarding domestic violence, scr...

Reviews of case files for 676 families who received supervised visitation services at one of four programs and interviews with 201 participating parents provide a portrait of the families receiving services, their experiences, and the outcomes. Programs successfully serve a wide variety of families and garner high ratings of user satisfaction, but...

To further the understanding of coworker violence, we analyzed data from the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey on the prevalence and characteristics of coworker violence among women and men, and compared the prevalence of coworker violence with violence perpetrated by other types of perpetrators. The NVAW Survey was conducted during Nov...

Background: To further the understanding of coworker violence, we analyzed data from the National Violence Against Women (NVAW) Survey on the prevalence and characteristics of coworker violence among women and men, and compared the prevalence of coworker violence with violence perpetrated by other types of perpetrators.Methods: The NVAW Survey was...

This article reports on three demonstration projects involving efforts to address the needs of public assistance applicants/recipients who are domestic violence victims while also developing effective methods to improve cooperation with child support agencies. Through various approaches, such as direct questioning, screening and referrals, and dome...

A review of 1,785 domestic violence crime reports generated by the Colorado Springs Police Department found that 1 in 6 (16.5 percent) contained evidence the suspect stalked the victim. Female victims were significantly more likely than male victims to allege stalking by their partners (18.3 vs. 10.5 percent). Most stalkers were former rather than...

Because stalking has only recently been recognized as a serious social problem and criminal justice concern, it is not surprising that there is little consensus among lawmakers about what constitutes stalking. To further understanding of how legal definitions and victim definitions of stalking intersect and diverge, this study compares stalking pre...

Using data from a telephone survey of 8,000 U.S. men and 8,000 U.S. women, this study compares the prevalence and consequences of violence perpetrated against men and women by marital and opposite-sex cohabiting partners. The study found that married/cohabiting women reported significantly more intimate perpetrated rape, physical assault, and stalk...

Brief interviews with 1,082 applicants for public assistance in four Colorado welfare offices show that 40% disclose current or past abuse. When apprised of the option of obtaining an exemption to the child support requirements of the new welfare reform law, only 6.7% of victims (2.7% of applicants) expressed an interest in applying. Most women sai...

This multisite assessment of five, court-affiliated parent education programs incorporates information from 3,000 exit surveys by attendees, 602 telephone interviews with willing parents six months later, comparisons with 145 divorcing parents who did not attend a program, and reviews of court activity. Parents report high levels of satisfaction wi...

Using data from a nationally representative telephone survey that was conducted from November 1995 to May 1996, this study compares lifetime experiences with violent victimization among men and women with a history of same-sex cohabitation and their counterparts with a history of marriage and/or opposite-sex cohabitation only. The study found that...

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Summarized policies and procedures used by various courts in the US in responding to domestic violence. 149 courts and services were surveyed on program policies and procedures related to screening referrals for domestic violence cases from mediation, and the special techniques, if any, that are used to mediate cases allegations of domestic violenc...

This article reports on the results of a telephone survey conducted with a random sample of households screened for eligibility to receive child support in the state of Colorado. Despite the recent enactment of ambitious child legislation at the state and federal levels, the accounts of 731 custodial parents reveal a massive level of unmet need, wi...

Using information extracted from child protective services and criminal court records, this research examines the extent and nature of dependency and criminal filings in 833 substantiated intrafamilial child abuse and neglect cases reported in Denver (CO), Los Angeles (CA), and Newcastle (DE) Counties in 1985-1986. Techniques of chi-square and disc...

This article reports on the results of a telephone survey conducted with a random sample of households screened for eligibility to receive child support in the state of Colorado. Despite the recent enactment of ambitious child support legislation at the state and federal levels, the accounts of 731 custodial parents reveal a massive level of unmet...

A secondary analysis of samples of divorced parents originally interviewed in 4 prior research projects (J. Pearson and N. Thoennes, 1983, 1984, and 1985; S. Steinman et al, in press) examined characteristics of couples with various types of sole and joint custody (JC) arrangements, their experiences with these arrangements, and behavioral and atti...

Using information from mail and telephone surveys and personal interviews with legal and mental health professionals who deal with child abuse cases, and empirical data from 12 domestic relations courts throughout the United States, the study concludes that only a small proportion of contested custody and visitation cases involve sexual abuse alleg...

Three major child support guideline models are currently used in the United States to stimulate adequate levels of child support. To evaluate the effects of these guidelines, we examined cases filed before and after their introduction in three states that enacted different models. Overall, we found a modest increase in child support awards and few...

The issue of visitation denial has inspired considerable debate and legislative activity. This article presents empirical evidence on the scope of the problem and the relationship between visitation and child support payment behaviors. Visitation denial is shown to be a problem, although reported levels of denial fall below both levels of non-conta...

The Uniform Marriage and Divorce Act gives judges discretionary powers to determine the best interests of the child in contested child custody proceedings. These include the authority to interview children in their chambers; appoint guardians ad litem to represent the interests of the child and to call upon domestic relations investigators or other...

This article compares custody award patterns in a sample of contested child custody cases filed in one jurisdiction of Colorado in 1966 and 1976, a time period which is prior to and follows the adoption of a sex neutral statute that stresses the best interest of the child in the judicial award of child custody. We find that legal change has had lim...