Child Maltreatment and Domestic Violence Editorial: Current State of Knowledge and Emerging Strategies for Policy and Practice

Abstract

Stress and adversity are an inevitable part of family life, and these are mostly dealt with in ways that are both healthy and resourceful. Few situations, though, are as stressful or provoke more crises within families than domestic violence (DV) and child maltreatment (CM). These social problems, at once separate and intertwined, are all too frequent and debilitating. Lifetime worldwide estimates of the prevalence of physical assault by males against females range between 10 and 69% (Heise, 2002), making intimate partner violence (IPV) one of the most common forms of trauma experienced by women. Estimates of the prevalence of child abuse are more difficult to ascertain and vary by age, but data from North America suggest that 6 per thousand to 22 per thousand children had a confirmed allegation of maltreatment in 2004 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, 2006; Trocme et al., 2005; Trocme, in press). However, this is generally considered an underestimate of the actual rate of child maltreatment as most child abuse and neglect likely goes unreported (Trocme, in press). The intersection between child maltreatment and DV is substantial, by any measure reaching into a large number of households. The co-occurrence of DV and child maltreatment may reach as high as 60% (Edleson, 1999) and, when measured as a form of maltreatment as it is in some provinces in Canada, accounts for over one quarter of all substantiated maltreatment reports (Trocme et al., 2005). In addition to the obvious trauma and related difficulties faced by women who are abused, childhood exposure to DV has been associated with elevated levels of psychosocial and behavioral difficulties (Edleson, 1999; Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003). There is also reason to believe that children are present in a large proportion of homes where DV occurs and are often witnesses to the violence between their caregivers (Catalano, 2007; Johnson, 2006). Despite the large overlap between child protective services and DV services, the two sectors have traditionally been uncoordinated, reflecting differences in mandates and ideological underpinnings (Edleson, 1999; Hartley, 2004). Inconsistencies and lack of coordination of services at pivotal moments in the lives of families, whether due to misunderstandings between systems or inadequate funding, limits effective treatment and may even escalate the crises faced by families. This special issue is part of an effort to understand this disjuncture, further evaluate the epidemiology of the cooccurrence of DV and childmaltreatment, evaluate new interventions, and propose conceptual, From the University of Toronto and California State University, Los Angeles. Contact author: Aron Shlonsky, University of Toronto. E-mail: aron.shlonsky@utoronto.ca.