Joan Zorza, JD

Attorney, Editor

Domestic Violence Report & Sexual Assault Report

E11 PROTECTING THE CHILDREN IN CUSTODY DISPUTES IN FAMILIES WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

F11 PARENTAL ALIENATION AND THE FRIENDLY PARENT CONCEPT

Joan Zorza, Esq., is the founding editor of both Domestic Violence Report and Sexual Assault Report, and has written extensively on child custody, domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. She is the author of the books Violence Against Women, Volumes I, II & III (2002. 2004, and 2006) and Guide to Interstate Custody: A Manual for Domestic Violence Advocates (1992, 1995).  She has represented or supervised lawyers and law students in cases on behalf of more than 2,000 battered women and 100 child incest victims as an attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services and at the National Battered Women’s Law Project of the now defunct National Center on Women and Family Law. 

While she no longer represents clients, Ms. Zorza remains involved through her writing and involvement as a board member or advisor to the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence, End Violence Against Women International, the Legal Resource Center on Violence Against Women, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the Leadership Council. She has consulted with the American Medical Association, the Department of Justice, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges; reviewed grants for the National Institute of Justice, Office of Violence Against Women and Centers for Disease Control; addressed the United Nations on America’s laws involving women, advised the Canadian government on the America’s experience with their stalking and custody laws, and the Irish health professions on implications of intimate partner violence. 

A member of the bars of the District of Columbia, New York and Massachusetts, Ms. Zorza helped draft parts of the Violence Against Women Act.  She has been awarded for her work on violence against women and custody by Department of Justice, the City of New York Human Resources Administration and the Sunshine Lady Foundation.