“Paper Abuse”: When All Else Fails, Batterers Use Procedural Stalking

Using data from in-depth interviews with women who have exited violent relationships, attorneys, and practitioners/policy specialists, this research note explores the continuation of control as women encounter "paper abuse." The barrage of men's frivolous lawsuits, false reports of child abuse, and other system-related manipulations exerts power, forces contact, and financially burdens their ex-partners. Although these acts are not new, the significance of this continuing abuse has not been fully explored by researchers. Yet attorneys and practitioners recognize the need for better documentation to strengthen protections for women still forced to contend with their former batterers.