Audit is a Lovely Word

December 30, 2010

by Julia Fletcher

Even with all of our differences…

and occasional set-backs, (and occasional French) we individuals and small groups of individuals and larger groups working together with hard work and faithful determination in order to expose the “PAS scam” 

are getting that which we’ve asked for… 

The Battered Women’s Justice Project, Praxis International, The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts are in the process of working together to audit, audit. Audit. Audit. Audit. Audit. – It feels so gooood to type that  lovely word. Audit.  

Please allow me to start again. The Battered Women’s Justice Project, Praxis International, The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts are in the process of working together to audit, the “institutional practices” of our nation’s family courts. 

I’ve looked for more detailed information about the process but can’t find any, so, I have two questions:

1. Just how comprehensive will this investigation and audit be?
2. If the investigation is comprehensive enough to reveal the criminal activity and professional ethics violations in the PAS scam cases, will our federal investigators and prosecutors then take it from there?

If the answers to the above are: “Very comprehensive.” and “Yes.”, then it’s an absolutely brilliant plan! 

From The Battered Women’s Justice Project:

CUSTODY PROJECT

Development of a Framework for Identifying and Explicating the Context of Domestic Violence in Custody Cases and its Implications for Custody Determinations

BWJP and its project partner, Praxis International, are expanding recent multidisciplinary efforts to more effectively protect the safety and wellbeing of children and their parents in the family court system by crafting a more practical framework for identifying, understanding and accounting for the contexts and implications of domestic violence in custody arrangements and parenting plans.

BWJP and Praxis staff  have formed a National Workgroup with representatives from the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC).  In consultation with leading researchers and practitioners, they have begun to examine the institutional processes by which family courts commonly reach and/or facilitate crucial parenting decisions, including the use of auxiliary advisors such as custody evaluators, guardians ad litem and court appointed special advocates.  The intent is to identify the ways in which current institutional practices produce both problematic and helpful results for children and their parents.  The goal of this analysis, which draws heavily from the Praxis Audit Process, is to develop concrete recommendations for producing safer, healthier outcomes for children and their battered and battering parents.

The first meeting of the National Workgroup was held in November to lay the groundwork for this two-year, OVW-funded project.  The National Workgroup will meet again in May to begin exploring the role of auxiliary advisors, the mechanics of the work that they perform, the reports that they produce, the ways in which the institution receives, interprets and acts on those reports, and the safety implications that flow from those complex institutional processes.  Canadian sociologist, Dr. Dorothy Smith, a world renowned expert in institutional ethnography, will facilitate the May meeting.