1. Children are Often Exposed to Domestic Violence top Fantuzzo, John, Robert Boruch, Abdullahi Beriama, Marc Atkins, and Susan Marcus (1997). "Domestic Violence
and Children: Prevalence and Risk in Five Major U.S. Cities." Journal of the American Academy of Child &
Adult Psychiatry v36 n1 p116-122. The authors analyzed data from a National Institute of Justice database of instances of wife assault when police
were called in to assist. Data for five U.S. cities was studied: Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Milwaukee, and Omaha.
This data is more reliable than reports obtained after-the-fact from women in shelters. Homes With Wife Assault Have More Young Children Other studies also indicate that domestic violence:
Other Risk Factors are Also Present Children Are Directly Involved in the Violence Provide Protection for Women and Children
2. Children are Harmed by Exposure top Barnett, Ola W., Cindy L. Miller-Perrin, and Robin D. Perrin (1997). "Children Exposed to Marital
Violence." Pages 133-158 in Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications. 392P. The authors review a wide range of research and program literature. 3.3 to 10 Million Children Are Exposed Is it Emotional Abuse or Trauma? Proven: A Correlation Between Exposure to Violence and Behavior Problems Violence Can Have Lasting Effects
DCFS Article (Pending)
by _____, DCFS ________Division.
by - DCFS Division
Article pending...
The data shows that in households reporting wife assault:
In this data sample, the households showed double or higher levels of additional risk factors, including: poverty,
single female as head of household, and low educational level of the primary caregiver.
Many children were directly involved by:
Practitioners should provide protection for women and children when domestic violence is likely to be present.
Various researchers estimate the number of U.S. children exposed to marital violence from as low as 3.3
million to as high as 10 million. How much of their parents' violence do children actually observe? Studies suggest 25% to 87%, more
than parents are aware of. Battered women in shelters are known to underestimate their children's
exposure.
There is lack of agreement about how to define the problem of children exposed to domestic violence.
Some researchers see it as psychological maltreatment or emotional abuse, others as a form of trauma.
The courts see it as child neglect and maltreatment.
There is also no agreed-upon definition of what witnessing or exposure is. It could include:
The authors reviewed over 40 studies that attempted to determine the effects of marital violence on
children. Most of the studies used the Child Behavior Checklist to rate children's behaviors in three
areas: internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social competence. In these studies,
35% to 45% of the children's ratings for behavior problems were in the clinical range.
The behavior problems identified in the studies include:
The impact of violence on children is more severe:
As adults, exposed children are at risk for poor health, mental health problems, substance abuse, marital
violence, physical abuse of children, and criminal behavior.
The Cause of Children's Problems is Not Proven
The research does not prove that exposure to violence causes these behavior problems. This research
is very difficult to conduct and should be considered tentative due to the following problems:
Other Family Stressors May Contribute
Violent families may experience a variety of other stressors, such as substance abuse and poverty.
Parents in a violent relationship are also probably not providing good parenting. Perhaps the combined
effect of all these stressors is to blame for children's problems, and not just witnessing domestic
violence.
How to Help Children
The battered women's movement has set up children's services in shelters, but little has been done by
the courts, law enforcement or human service agencies to help exposed children. Generally, children are
helped only if their mothers seek shelters.
Public Policy Needs to Be Changed
Public policy has not recognized that domestic violence is harmful to children. Legal and court policies
for custody, mediation and visitation need to be changed. Judges, prosecutors, police, attorneys, and
medical personnel all need adequate information and training to sensitize them to the issues of domestic
violence and its effect on children.
Battered Women Lose Custody Battles
Batterers frequently threaten victims with a child custody battle in order to prevent them from leaving,
and the men are often successful at gaining custody. Courts commonly view a father's battering
behavior as irrelevant in determining if he is a fit parent, but then view a battered mother's poor
functioning as a valid reason to remove the children from her.
Any Visitation Should Be Supervised
Mandatory visitation rights give abusers the chance to continue psychological and physical threats and
abuse. Any visitation granted to an abuser should be supervised visitation, but there are few such
programs available.
3. Battering Men Have Chronic Problems top
Barnett, Ola W., Cindy L. Miller-Perrin, and Robin D. Perrin (1997). "Marital Violence: Batterers." Pages 235-250 in Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 392P.
The authors review a wide range of research and program literature.
Batterers: Depression and Antisocial Personality Disorder
The literature discusses the following important characteristics of batterers:
More Characteristics of Batterers:
Treatment for Batterers May Help, But it Needs Enforcement
Treatment programs for batterers can reduce violent behavior and improve other problems, such as
depression. However, the programs have very high dropout rates. Courts should ensure that treatment
is completed and order longer-term counseling.
Four Types of Treatment Programs are Found:
4. Research Dispells Myths top
Pagelow, Mildred Daley (1997). "Battered Women: A Historical Research Review and Some Common Myths." Pages 97-116 in Violence and Sexual Abuse at Home: Current Issues in Spousal Battering and Child Maltreatment. New York: Haworth Maltreatment and Trauma Press.
The author reviews research that challenges common myths and stereotypes about domestic violence.
Domestic Violence is Not Rare
Domestic violence is not rare or confined to psychologically disturbed partners. This myth may
have arisen among medical professionals, who are often the first and sometimes the only
practitioners to come into contact with victims of domestic violence. Although 10-22%
of women who use medical emergency services are battered, only 2-8% are identified as such and
offered help beyond treatment of their injuries. Nurses have been more helpful to battered
women and less victim blaming than physicians.
Medical Practitioners Have Become More Responsive to Victims
The following positive changes have occurred in some medical settings:
Police Have Been Reluctant to Intervene
A common complaint of victims has been that police did little or nothing to be of help when
they responded. Police have tended to view domestic violence calls as nuisances, because:
Arrests Discourage Repeat Offenses
Arresting abusers is more effective in preventing repeat offenses than other interventions, although
findings disagree about when and with whom this is the case. The most effective way to reduce
repeat offenses is to arrest the offender and then provide treatment.
Studies of police response to domestic violence under new laws and guidelines that encourage arrest have found that arrests occur most often when:
Batterers have Been Sentenced More Lightly Than Other Offenders
Male batterers have traditionally received much lighter sentences than offenders who commit
violent crimes against strangers. Further, when offenders are allowed to begin treatment
in exchange for dropped charges, they can stop treatment at any point without fear of adverse
legal consequences.
Concern About Homicide Has Been Biased
More attention has been paid to battered women who kill their abusers than instances in which
male abusers kill female victims, despite findings that:
One study determined that these factors were present when battered women killed male partners:
Abuse Of Males Is Much Less Common
The first national study of family violence (Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980) found that
a large percentage of violence involved both partners, which encouraged the myth that male
partners suffer as much abuse as females. However, most women who strike out against their
partners do so in self-defense. A number of other studies have found that only of 5-10% of abused
partners are male.
5. Battered Women Suffer From PTSD top Barnett, Ola W., Cindy L. Miller-Perrin, and Robin D. Perrin (1997). "Marital Violence: Battered Women."
Pages 211-231 in Family Violence Across the Lifespan: An Introduction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Publications. 392P. The authors review a wide range of research and program literature. People Wrongly Blame Battered Women Depression and Stress are Major Problems Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Some Feel Helpless, Others Don't Why Doesn't She Leave?
Surveys show that the public, human service providers, police, health care providers, and the courts all
see battered women as at least partly to blame for being victimized. They believe that battered women
would leave if they were really unhappy with their situations. They believe that battered women abuse alcohol,
come from abusive families, and have low self-esteem.
However, studies indicate that battered women are not more likely than non-battered women to have
been abused as children, and their low self-esteem is a consequence of the abuse and not a precursor to
it.
Victims of battering experience levels of depression and attempted suicides four times the rate of non-battered women. They suffer from greater stress and higher rates of illness and mental health problems.
45%-60% of battered women experience stress at the level of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The American Psychological Association has approved "Battered Woman Syndrome" as a subcategory
of PTSD.
Battered women may feel the same helplessness that other crime victims feel. Some studies show that
battered women may experience Learned Helplessness - not attempting to escape from a painful
situation because previous experiences have taught that escape is impossible. Other studies indicate the
opposite: battered women are actively attempting to leave, averaging six attempts to locate help before
they enter a shelter.
Everyone asks this question about battered women. However, many do leave. About two-thirds of
women entering shelters do not return to their relationships.
The Service Priority is Safety First
The first priority for shelters is to make arrangements for the safety of women and children. Other
service goals are to support the women in:
6. Battered Mothers are Labeled Negatively top Jaffe, Peter G. and Robert Geffner (1998). "Child Custody Disputes and Domestic Violence: Critical
Issues for Mental Health, Social Service, and Legal Professionals." Pages 371-408 in Children Exposed
to Marital Violence: Theory, Research, and Applied Issues. Washington DC: American Psychological
Association. The authors review research and program literature. Most Domestic Violence Hurts Women The Cycle of Violence Continues Battered Women Get Negative Labels There is No Evidence to Support the Labels A No-Win Situation for Battered Women? The Batterer is an Unfit Parent Domestic Violence Goes Undetected Always Screen for Domestic Violence Separation Services
7. The Legal Environment Penalizes Battered Women top Zorza, Joan (1995). "How Abused Women Can Use the Law to Help Protect Their Children." Pages 147-169 in Ending the Cycle of
Violence: Community Responses to Children of Battered Women. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. The author is the Senior Attorney of the National Battered Women's Law Project funded by the Ford
Foundation. She offers information from her experience as well as from surveys and research studies.
Her technical discussions about custody, protective orders, criminal proceedings and tort suits are not
included in this summary. Current Legal Protection is Inadequate Separation is a Dangerous Time Domestic Violence Makes Women Poor Courts Disbelieve Sexual Abuse Claims Treatment Programs for Batterers Have High Drop-Out Rates
Although both men and women can be violent, violence against women causes greater injury and
suffering, and most women's violence is in self-defense. In the general population, 30% of women
experience some relationship violence and for 10% of these women, the violence is so severe that they
worry for their safety. Domestic violence is a significant cause of homelessness in women and children.
Boys of abusive fathers are 10 times more likely than other boys to grow up to abuse their own wives.
Girls, if they become battered women, are less likely to seek help than girls who come from non-violent
families.
Courts tend to favor abusive fathers in custody disputes. Courts assume that battered women exaggerate
claims of violence, make false claims of child abuse, or intentionally alienate their children, all as tactics
to influence the case. They are labeled negatively when they display symptoms of Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder. Two such labels are 'parent alienation syndrome' and 'malicious mother syndrome.'
The American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family has
reviewed the literature on this topic, and expressed concern for the 'pathologizing' of battered women,
and the minimizing of batterers' violence. There is no research that supports the existence of the
syndromes mentioned above, or that allegations of violence or child abuse in custody cases are false.
Sometimes battered women are in a 'no-win' situation. If they do not report child abuse and attempt to
get their children away from the abuser, they can be held responsible for failing to protect the children
and the abuser may get custody. If they do report child abuse, they may be accused of having 'parent
alienation syndrome' and the abuser again gets custody.
The violent behavior of the batterer has traditionally been considered irrelevant to evaluating his fitness
as a parent. However, the American Bar Association, the American Psychological Association and other
researchers now recommend that a battering parent should be presumed to have psychologically abused
the children, is therefore unfit for sole or joint custody, and that visitation should be supervised until the
batterer has completed a course of treatment.
In the twenty years' experience of these authors, domestic violence is under-reported by both battered
women and their husbands in divorce cases and it is usually not identified. Its lethality is rarely
evaluated.
Screening for domestic violence and its lethality must be conducted in all divorce cases, particularly
when there are children. It is essential that all staff involved in custody evaluations be well-trained in
domestic violence issues in order to be sensitive to the dynamics of these relationships.
During separation, women and children are stressed from economic insecurity, multiple moves, living in
shelter housing, and efforts to deal with courts and attorneys. After their safety is ensured, they will also
need these services:
The protection offered to battered women and their children by existing laws and the courts is
inadequate, and too often actively penalizes women and children for being victims. Laws and court
practices must be changed. Judges, police and attorneys must get thorough training on the realities of
domestic violence.
When women and children separate from an abusive father, he seldom stops his abuse and efforts to
control them. Women and children need increased protection during separation.
Courts treat women's custody claims less favorably than men's partly because abused women are more
likely than batterers to seem economically unstable.
In contested custody cases, when mothers allege that their husbands sexually abuse their children,
courts and even child protection agencies assume that the charges are a ploy intended to influence the
court, and do not take them seriously. A survey of 100,000 mothers in Californian domestic violence programs found that courts were more
likely to award custody to fathers when the mothers made allegations of sexual abuse.
Success rates for abuser treatment programs are not reported accurately because they fail to account for
their high drop-out rate. One study found that of 200 men referred to treatment, only 12 completed less
than half the program, and only 2 completed the entire program.
8. Domestic Violence and Child Abuse are Linked in Families top McKay, Mary McKernan (1994). "The Link between Domestic Violence and Child Abuse: Assessment
and Treatment Considerations." Child Welfare v73 no1 p29-39. Research shows that domestic violence and child abuse are linked within families and that each is a
fairly strong predictor of the other.
Child Protection Services to Reconsider
9. Battering Men are More Likely to Abuse Children top Saunders, Daniel (1994). "Child Custody Decisions in Families Experiencing Woman
Abuse." Social Work v39 n1 p51-59. This author reviews research on woman abuse. Risk Assessment: Which Parent Will Abuse? Behavior Predicts Better Than Personality Women May Appear Unstable But Can Recover Batterers Are More Likely to Abuse Children Studies of which parent is most likely to abuse the children have methodological
shortcomings. There is evidence that battered women may use violence against their
children, but it seems established that men are likely to abuse their children more
severely and/or more frequently. Futhermore, batterers should be seen as abusing
their children emotionally. Witnessing woman abuse emotionally traumatizes children,
and is linked to a variety of behavior problems.
10. Child Protection and Shelters Are at Odds top Echlin, Carole and Larry Marshall (1995). "Child Protection Services for Children of Battered Women."
Pages 170-185 in Ending the Cycle of Violence: Community Responses to Children of Battered Women.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Lack of Clarity in the CPS Mandate These Policy Changes Are Needed:
11. Child Protection and Shelters Should Learn From Each Other top Aron, Laudan, Krista Olson (1997). "Efforts by Child Welfare Agencies to Address Domestic Violence."
Public Welfare v55 p4-13. The authors summarize a report prepared by the Urban Institute under contract from the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. The investigators visited and evaluated five child welfare
agencies that have active domestic violence programs, located in Massachusetts, Oregon, San Diego
County, Michigan and Hawaii. See the report on the Web at
http://www.urban.org/welfare/aron3.htm for more information about the program in each location. Learn From Domestic Violence Services There are Important Differences Between Child Protection and Shelter Cases
Recommendations
12. Juvenile and Family Court Judges Issue Recommendations for Effective Intervention top
Both domestic violence agencies and the child welfare system must change their services to reflect the
link between domestic violence and child abuse.
In domestic violence cases, it may be necessary to determine whether the batterer or
the battered woman is most likely to abuse their children in the future. The following
factors should be considered when assessing the level of risk for parents' physical or
emotional abuse of their children:
It is more reliable to predict future abuse based on past behavior than on personality traits. A
good indicator is the Child Abuse Potential Inventory supplemented by interviews and
background data.
Battered women are less likely to have chronic psychological problems, but often experience Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression which are the result of battering. They may appear
unstable, inarticulate, angry, nervous, or present a flat affect due to psychic numbing. The goal
of assessing a battered woman is to determine the likelihood that she will recover normal
functioning once she is safe from the violence.
Although battering men may appear to function well, they are likely to have severe, chronic
psychological problems. Treatment programs for abusers are not well evaluated. One year after
completion, 15%-40% of men may batter again, and psychological abuse may not be reduced by
the program.
Child protection services (CPS) respond in varying ways to children who witness woman abuse,
sometimes offering protection and sometimes withholding protection, perhaps due to a lack of clarity in
the CPS mandate. Witnessing abuse may not fall clearly into a CPS definition of child abuse, and no
state or federal laws define it as such. Without a clear mandate, each CPS must decide for itself how to
respond. There are serious impediments to developing a clearer mandate for CPS:
Child protection services and domestic violence agencies have historically been at odds. CPS see
shelters as ignoring children's needs in order to emphasize women's rights. Shelters see CPS as
victimizing women by ignoring family violence and forcing women to choose between their children and
the perpetrator, or as blaming women for failing to protect their children. Both groups can learn from
each other.
Schechter, Susan and Jeffrey L. Edleson, principle authors (1998)."Child Protection System." Pages 50-68 in Effective Intervention In Domestic Violence & Child Maltreatment Cases: Guidelines for Policy and Practice: Recommendations from the National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges Family Violence Department. Executive Summary on the Web at http://www.vaw.umn.edu/FinalDocuments/executvi.htm
The project from which this report stems was funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Justice (Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs), the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Johnson Foundation.
This chapter provides guidelines for child protection policy and practice to improve outcomes for families affected by domestic violence. Other chapters address improved practice for courts and domestic violence programs.
Take Leadership to Develop Community Resources
Child protection services and community-based child welfare agencies should collaborate with
domestic violence organizations and juvenile courts to provide leadership for developing new
services and publicly articulating the need for additional resources to promote family safety.
Leadership should also involve:
Improve Agency Response Capacity
Child protection agencies should improve their capacity to respond to domestic violence and to
promote safety for all family members by developing special:
Adopt These Policies and Practices
Agency policy must clearly state the criteria for allowing children to remain with
non-abusing parents who experience domestic violence, what assessment is needed to determine
safety, and the safety planning services, support and monitoring that are required in these
cases.
Child protection workers should develop service plans and make referrals that focus on the safety, stability and wellbeing of all victims of family violence and that hold perpetrators accountable. It is important that they:
Refer to Community Agencies That Observe These Practices:
13. Integrated Services in Massachusetts top
Whitney, Pamela and Lonna Davis (1999). "Child Abuse and Domestic Violence in Massachusetts: Can Practice Be Integrated in a Public Child Welfare Setting?" Child Maltreatment v4 n2 p158-166.
Massachusetts was the first state to integrate child welfare and domestic violence services in its Department of Social Services. The authors review this experience and discuss directions for future development.
Pilot Programs Led to Statewide Integration of Domestic Violence and Child Protection
Services
Pilot programs that tested the feasibility of integrating domestic violence and child
protection services found that having battered women's advocates work directly with child
protection workers is the best strategy for improving services to children affected by
domestic violence. Following the success of these programs, the Massachusetts Department of
Social Services (DSS) established a statewide Domestic Violence Program in 1994.
The work of fourteen domestic violence specialists forms the core of the program. Each specialist is responsible for two to three DSS local offices and is charged with developing supportive relationships with direct service and management staff, providing:
In conjunction with the new program, DSS developed and distributed a Domestic Violence Protocol (available from Massachusetts Department of Social Services, 24 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210; phone 617-748-2400) to all staff in 1995. The Protocol includes guidelines for screening and investigating abuse and neglect reports, conducting assessments, safety planning for both families and workers and service planning, including referral to community resources.
Keeping Mothers and Children Together is the Basic Goal
The basic goal of integrated services is to protect mothers and children within the same
household. Success requires that team members share the following beliefs:
Understanding and Involving Mothers Is Crucial
Comprehensive assessment of domestic violence includes consideration of:
Without thorough understanding of each of these factors, it is possible to recommend courses of action that may be ineffective or dangerous. For the same reasons, it is important to include battered women in planning safety strategies for themselves and their children whenever possible. It is much easier to involve mothers when their own safety is recognized as a legitimate concern from the beginning.
Worker Safety Is Also a Concern
Domestic violence specialists also encourage workers to think about their own safety.
Some steps that increase security are interviewing offenders in the office,
carrying a cellular phone and using conflict diffusion skills.
DSS Seeks Increased Batterer Accountability and Expertise in Dealing with Batterers
The Massachusetts child protection system has little authority to hold batterers accountable
for the harm they do to their children, and this has sometimes led to undue focus on holding
mothers responsible for failing to protect their children. The DSS Domestic Violence Program includes
a batterer's intervention consultant to provide the following services:
Integrated Community Services Must Be Developed
Many families who experience domestic violence could be better served outside the child
protection system if integrated supports beyond shelters and the criminal justice system were
available. The Domestic Violence Program is working to develop a community-based system that
could help woman and children at any point of entry. Two important steps are exploration of family
support models of service (see the article on page 12 of the Research in Action issue, Latino Families)
that focus on prevention and family preferences and working to refine criteria that determine
who is best equipped to provide services in specific instances. Development of guidelines has been particularly
challenging for cases in which children have witnessed domestic violence or are at risk of
future exposure but are otherwise doing well.
Integrated Services Improve Practice and Community Understanding
Integrated services have resulted in a number of positive changes in DSS practice and community
awareness, including:
14. Domestic Violence Courts Show Promise top
Tsai, Betsy (2000). "The Trend Toward Specialized Domestic Violence Courts: Improvement on an Effective Innovation." Fordham Law Review v68 n4 p1285-1327.
The author compares traditional court responses to domestic violence with those of model domestic violence courts in four locations.
Traditional Court Approaches to Domestic Violence are Flawed
Traditionally, courts have not handled domestic violence cases differently from others.
Problems resulting from this approach include:
Model Domestic Violence Programs Attempt Improvements
Comprehensive, multidisciplinary approaches to domestic violence have been developed in Quincy, MA,
New York City, the District of Columbia and Dade County, FL to try to overcome these problems. The
programs have many elements in common:
Dade County also mandates group counseling for children exposed to domestic violence and requires judges to provide community education about domestic violence. Some programs include policies that prevent dropped charges and mandate arrest of domestic violence perpetrators.
The Outcomes of Model Programs are Uncertain
Research has yet to demonstrate the effectiveness of these model programs, in part due to their short
history. It is unclear if cooperation in dealing with domestic violence cases has improved or if treatment
and legal sanctions have reduced perpetrators' violent behavior. Training has yet to change the behavior
of all court personnel toward victims and perpetrators. As a result, some argue that scarce resources
should be reserved for services to victims.
Model Programs Should Continue
The oldest of these programs, established in 1976, has clearly reduced domestic violence. In the area
served by the Quincy District Court Domestic Abuse Program, there has been only one domestic
violence homicide in the last 16 years, compared to a 1995 rate of one woman killed every four days in
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a whole.
Although research into the effects of batterer treatment has conflicting results, most well-designed studies indicate that treatment does reduce battering and psychological abuse. There is some evidence that treatment is more effective when it is court ordered.
While positive effects of increased legal sanctions against battering have not been clearly demonstrated, they do send messages that domestic violence is not acceptable and that batterers are accountable for their behavior. On these grounds alone, they should be continued. There is evidence that legal sanctions deter domestic violence more effectively when combined with informal social controls, such as negative impact on batterers' employment or reputations.
15. A Children's Group Model top Peled, Einat and Diane Davis (1995). Groupwork With Children of Battered Women: A Practitioner's
Guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. The Minneapolis Domestic Abuse Program (DAP), in operation since 1979, offers therapy for children
and parents, training for practitioners, and community intervention programs such as violence education
programs in the schools. The authors describe their group program for children of battered women. The
book includes guidelines for intake and assessment, as well as a description of the concurrent classes for
parents. The DAP Program Guiding Principles
Guidelines for Children's Participation
The group treatment program for children is not for children with mental illness, who are suicidal, abusing
substances, or have not been treated for existing abuse directed at them. Children must:
Goals of the Children's Program
It is hoped that children in the program will:
Content of the Children's Weekly Group Sessions
Some Positive Results
A qualitative evaluation of the program showed that a sample of the participants were able to 'break the
secret' of family violence and learn that abuse is not OK. Children were selective about how extensively
they shared personal experiences with the group.
16. Help for Children's Conduct Problems top Jouriles, E. N. and others (1998). "Breaking the Cycle of Violence: Helping Families Departing From
Battered Women's Shelters. Pages 337-369 in Children Exposed to Marital Violence: Theory, Research,
and Applied Issues. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. The Violent Family Environment Encourages Conduct Problems Stressors on Battered Women Increase After Separation Parent Training and Stress Reduction Help Children's Conduct Problems Eight Months of Weekly Home Visits Relating to the Mothers Warmly Results are Very Positive Get Started at DCFS Champaign-Urbana Try the Yahoo Domestic Violence Page Nationwide Hotlines Evanston, Illinois Shelter Cook County, Illinois Shelters and Legal Aid Clinton, Illinois Shelter and Legal Aid Champaign County, Illinois Programs More Illinois Programs Belleville, Illinois Batterer Treatment Program Illinois Protocol for Batterers Programs A Model Domestic Violence Policy for Counties Research on Domestic Violence and Child Welfare
Reports From the Urban Institute
Many children exposed to domestic violence show conduct problems consisting of aggressive,
antisocial, and oppositional behaviors. Research shows that conduct problems are related to
these two family characteristics:
After leaving shelters to establish their own households, battered women may not be able to improve
their interactions with their children. They may be very stressed by continuing or increased hostility from
the batterer and very limited access to resources and social support.
Research shows that conduct problems in children can be improved by providing parent training
combined with social and instrumental supports to reduce parental stress. The authors designed an
intervention that includes these two components which they offered to women leaving shelters. Without
intervention, their children may grow up to create violent homes of their own.
The program includes up to eight months of weekly sessions provided in the client's home by a therapist
who works with the mother and one or more graduate students who interact with the children. Visiting the
home solves the problem of lack of mother's transportation and gives the staff a better view of the
family and its needs.
Mothers must be offered a warm and accepting relationship because they have experienced so much
criticism, denigration and rejection from their partners. The parent training must be offered without any
implication that the mothers are to blame for their children's behavior problems. Instead, mothers are
encouraged to use new skills to help their children recover from the effects of domestic violence.
Preliminary data shows that the intervention reduces children's antisocial behavior to a remarkable
degree. Mothers also show improvements in their warmth and involvement with their children and in the
level of stress they are experiencing.
To begin finding Web resources on Domestic Violence, start with the site from the Champaign-Urbana
Field Office of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
http://www.prairienet.org/dcfs/clientresources.html
The Yahoo web site includes many useful links.
http://http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Crime/Types_of_Crime/Domestic_Violence
This site includes a list of national and state hotlines for domestic violence.
http://www.feminist.org/911/crisis.html
Friends of Battered Women and Their Children,
A Friends Place, in Evanston, Illinois (773-274-5232 or 1-800-603-HELP) maintains this web site.
http://www.jle-ns.org/ShelterBatteredWomen.htm
For a list of phone numbers of shelters and legal assistance services in Cook County, visit this site
maintained by the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.
http://www.statesattorney.org/victim/domindex.htm
This site includes phone numbers for the shelter and legal assistance in Clinton, Illinois.
http://www.police.ci.clinton.il.us/dove.htm
"HelpSource," a project of Prairienet, includes a database of human and social service
resources in Champaign County. Search using the keywords, "domestic violence" to find services
in Champaign County.
http://www.prairienet.org/helpsource/search/search.html
Danville Area Community College
compiles the Com-Link database of community service programs.
This page lists several domestic violence programs in Illinois under the keywords "abusers" and "domestic abuse".
http://http://www.prairienet.org/com-link/irispag1.htm#GO_TOP
Provident Counseling in Belleville, Illinois, offers a program to treat batterers, described at this address.
http://www.providentc.org/prov_mdv.htm
Here you can read the "Illinois Protocol for Domestic Abuse Batterers Programs" from the Illinois
Department of Public Aid.
http://comnet.org/bisc/standards/illinois.html
This set of guidelines, including those for child welfare services, was developed by the New York State
Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence.
http://www.serve.com/zone/opdv/
http://tigger.uic.edu/~lwbenn/DVPEP/dvpep.htm
http://cwolf.uaa.alaska.edu/~afrhm1/index.html
http://www.mincava.umn.edu/link/
Read the report summarized as Article #11
"Child Protection and Shelters Should Learn From Each Other",
as well as another report on the same topic, offered by the Urban
Institute on its web site.
http://www.urban.org/welfare/aron3.htm
http://www.urban.org/crime/ccr96b.htm