The Response of Child Welfare Agencies to Domestic Violence

Abstract

The mandate of the child welfare system is to ensure that children are safe from harm. Cases in which children are exposed to domestic violence are particularly complex and challenging for child welfare professionals because the institutional practices developed within the child welfare system often do not take into account the dynamics of domestic violence. Although adult and child victims are often found in the same households, historically child protection workers and domestic violence have responded separately to them. The child welfare system has developed over the past century into a bureaucratic, largely publicly run system that is heavily governed by state and federal regulations. Domestic violence agencies are largely nonprofitChild Welfare Cases and Domestic Violence 90 Practice Guidelines for Child Welfare Professionals 93 Promoting Collaboration: The Greenbook Project 95 Conclusion 97 References 97and emerged from the grassroots battered women’s movement of the 1970s. Differences in philosophy, mandates, training, and roles have hampered collaboration (Aron & Olson, 1997). Battered women’s advocates have viewed child protection workers as unfairly penalizing woman by removing children from their care for failure to protect. On the other hand, child welfare workers sometimes view advocates for battered women as ignoring the needs of children (Shepard & Raschick, 1999). Effective intervention strategies that protect children, but do not penalize battered women, are still in developmental stages.