Talk:Family Violence

Hi JP and Nate

I have made several substantive changes here that you will need to check, JP. Point #4 is for Nate.

1. Re the police responding to a 911 call about family violence: The text suggested that the abuser would be taken into custody "in all likelihood" . . . this seems to me to offer a scenario to abuse victims that, while it is based on the VAWIR policy, is in practical terms too optimistic. I changed the text to say police may arrest, may take into custody. See what you think. The same goes for describing what happens to the accused.

2. Re groups like Battered Women's Support Services - these days the go-to is VictimLink - I added a paragraph about that - standard VictimLink language.

3. In terms of a "safe house" I have used current thinking and referred to developing a safety plan as well as to the possibility of leaving the home and going to a safe place. (A safety plan acknowledges that many women don't leave the first, second or third time . . .)

4. In terms of resources, I took out the Dial-a-Law Dating Violence script (this section isn't about dating) and added the LSS family law website stuff on child protection (I think you get a much bigger bang for your buck having this resource in there). But the text does not seem to be fitting inside the text box - you can see the problem in View. (Hunted about to try to solve this but could not.)

5. This is quite outside the realm of copy editing, but I found it odd that a chapter on Family Violence would start off with a discussion of tort law. . . If I was doing a substantive edit, I would move up the call the police, call VictimLink to be the lead items, and move on from there.

You probably seeing this word used in terms like substantive law, substantive issues, or substantive orders, and it is used to identify aspects of these things (be they laws, legal issues, or court orders) that deal with the legal rights and duties of the parties involved in a case. Substantive law defines and regulates the rights and obligations of individuals, as opposed to procedural law, which outlines the methods and means by which substantive law is made and administered. In family law, substantive issues often involve matters such as guardianship and parenting arrangements relating to children, support, and the division of property. A substantive order from a judge will be a decision about a substantive issue, versus a procedural order which will be about how steps in the litigation should.

In family law, an antiquated term used by the old Divorce Act to describe the right to possess a child and make parenting decisions concerning the child's health, welfare and upbringing. Replaced in the new Divorce Act with the term decision-making responsibility." See "access," "decision-making responsibility" and "parenting time."