No-fault divorce: Understanding consequences for cases with intimate partner violence.

No-fault divorce allows couples to cite that their dissolution was mutual and no longer requires assigning “fault.” Past research, however, has shown that cruelty divorce grounds was one of the only ways IPV was documented in divorce cases among mothers who self-reported IPV. We examine whether divorces with cruelty grounds (vs. other fault/no-fault grounds) are more likely to include other IPV indicators; whether custody outcomes differ by grounds; and if the association between grounds and custody outcomes differs by whether custody was contested or involved third-party intervention. We collected data from divorce (n = 425), order of protection (OP) (n = 58), and criminal records (n = 117) associated with petitioners and respondents in divorces in a Midwestern county. Cruelty grounds were associated with OP documentation, but not criminal records in divorce files, and increased likelihood of maternal sole custody. Non-cruelty grounds were associated with increased likelihood of joint custody.