Recent recognition of the effects of domestic violence on children has given rise to calls for collaborative interventions between the arenas of child protection and domestic violence. Amidst this flurry of activity, little serious consideration has been given to the subjectivity of mothers who are simultaneously involved with child protection agencies and battered women's shelters. Without explicit engagement of mothers as subjects in their own right, collaboration has the potential to exacerbate their already trying circumstances. Our paper reviews the child protection context in which women as mothers are simultaneously relegated to the periphery of concern and called upon to act as 'mother protectors' in response to children at risk. We then explore mothering in the context of domestic violence and their relative invisibility in shelter settings. We conclude with a call to render women's experiences of domestic violence and mothering both visible and supported in these collaborative efforts.

Human service professionals offering psychosocial services to people who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) report multiple impacts to their physical and psychological well-being. These impacts have been described and investigated through multiple concepts including vicarious trauma, secondary traumatic stress disorder, compassion fatigue, and posttraumatic stress disorder. This scoping review mapped the relevant empirical literature on this topic guided by the question: What has been found in the empirical, peer-reviewed, scholarly literature examining exposure to the aversive details of IPV among human service professionals? A total of 13 relevant empirical studies investigating the impacts of exposure to the aversive details of IPV and human service professionals were found. The results were charted, collated, and summarized. The results support previous research finding IPV human service professionals to be at elevated risk of harm as a result of their work. The impacts of IPV practice were predominantly described as challenging. Some research participants also reported having experienced positive growth and appreciation for their work despite exposure to traumatic events. Protective factors including workplace social support emerged. Implications for practice, training, and research are offered.

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This paper presents a broad overview of the cross-cultural lit erature on the abuse of women by husbands or partners with emphasis on cross-cultural patterns and variations in the extent of violence against women in intimate relations, the effects of such violence, factors that place women at risk for abuse and the routes available to women to address such abuse. Implications for clinical and social responses to violence against women in intimate relations are discussed.