ABSTRACT
This study was part of a larger research project, which investigated post-separation violence, father-child relationships and children’s participation in child custody and child protection proceedings. It was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and it was approved by the University of Ottawa’s Research Ethics Board. This article presents findings from a secondary data analysis. The data were initially gathered through two independent studies conducted in Quebec. The final sample for this study included 23 custody evaluation reports, which had been produced in the context of family court proceedings, in cases where there had been domestic violence. A feminist critical discourse analysis was conducted using NVivo. Overall, the research findings reveal that children’s voices have been marginalised in the family evaluation process, as the evaluators gave little or no consideration to the children’s wishes and feelings in their reports. In some cases, children’s wishes and feelings have been dismissed and seen as irrational, particularly when the evaluators have concluded that they had been influenced by their mothers’ alienating behaviours. The research findings also show that family evaluators tend to interpret what children’s needs are with little or no consideration to their perspectives, wishes and feelings. These research findings raise important questions regarding custody evaluators’ understanding of children’s experiences in the context of domestic violence, and the place that is given to their voices in this process. The findings will be discussed in relation to children’s rights and the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.