Child Maltreatment and Domestic Violence: Opportunities for Reform

• Author: Honorable Karen Aileen Howze
• Published date: 01 October 2020
• Date: 01 October 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12524

CHILD MALTREATMENT AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE:

OPPORTUNITIES FOR REFORM

Honorable Karen Aileen Howze

Despite decades of effort, it remains difficult to create sustainable best practices and policies at the intersection of child wel-

fare and domestic violence. As the courts, federal and state governments, and child welfare agencies seek better outcomes for

children and families caught at the intersection, there is an urgent need for creative data collection, more and consistent data

assessment, consistent assessments of children and families to identify and address domestic violence in child welfare cases,

and a consistent legal response to improving outcomes for children and families in these cases while ensuring safety, perma-

nency and well-being for all family members.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Understanding the intersection between child maltreatment and domestic violence.

Exploring disproportionate and disparate treatment of families of color and those from marginalized communities at

the intersection of child maltreatment and domestic violence.

Creating new approaches to working with children and families exposedto domestic violence.

Exploring emerging practices to engage child and adult survivors of child and the engagement of those who are

responsible for the violence to create better outcomes for families.

Keywords: Child Maltreatment; Child Protection; Courts; Disparity; Disproportionality; Domestic Violence; Domestic

Violence Advocates.

Practice and policy at the intersection of child maltreatment and domestic violence has been an

issue for social work, legal, and domestic violence professionals for decades. Child welfare agen-

cies, the legal system, and advocacy professions have grappled with ways to ensure safety for chil-

dren and families within the child welfare and domestic violence systems while recognizing that

child welfare and domestic violence laws have different missions and require different responses.

Federal and state child welfare laws are designed to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-

being of abused and neglected children.

1

Domestic violence laws, both criminal and civil, focus on

assisting survivors of domestic violence in creating safety and autonomy while ensuring the

accountability of the person who commits the violence.

2

Despite the overlap of child maltreatment and domestic violence, over the years it has been diffi-

cult for child welfare agencies, the courts, and domestic violence protection systems to address the

complex dynamics of domestic violence in child protection cases.

3

Child protection agencies inves-

tigating complaints of child abuse or neglect may fail to identify these dynamics. Meanwhile, the

parent experiencing physical, sexual, psychological and/or economic violence becomes the focus of

child welfare intervention often without an examination of the nature and extent of past violence

that may affect the safety and well-being of the survivor parent. Often the allegations in the child

welfare case focus on the presence of substance abuse, educational neglect, failure to provide appro-

priate medical treatment, parental failure to protect the child because the presence of domestic vio-

lence is not the primary reason for agency involvement, or the presence of violence in the home is

unknown.

Corresponding: khowze@ncjfcj.org

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 58 No. 4, October 2020 897–907, doi: 10.1111/fcre.12524

© 2020 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts