1 This paper is based on the Fedele F. and Iris M. Fauri memorial lecture series on child welfare at the University of Michigan School of Social Work.

No abstract

Family violence, and particularly co-occurring domestic violence and child maltreatment, are common and complex, often frustrating both child welfare agencies and domestic violence service organizations in their efforts to care for children and adult victims, respectively. The Family Violence Services Study (FVSS) is a project to collect detailed, contextual data at the state and local levels on the organization and relationship of child welfare services for children, and domestic violence services for women when these problems co-occur. Although previous research has found a high rate of co-occurring domestic violence and child maltreatment in the child welfare system, little systematic research on a national scale is available about state and local policies and practices related to these families. This current project is a supplemental study of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a national probability study of more than 5,000 children and adolescents ages 0-14 investigated as victims of child abuse and neglect. The NSCAW study contains detailed information on child development, functioning and symptoms, services, environment and placement over a 36-month period along with domestic violence and maternal characteristics and services. The FVSS uses the same sample as NSCAW to survey child welfare services (CWS) and domestic violence service (DVS) agencies, and will study service system responses through both the survey data and the new contextual information. The FVSS investigative team documented strikingly high rates of cooccurring family violence in their national sample of families referred for suspected abuse or neglect, frequent persistence of some types of domestic violence and child maltreatment, wide variation in service delivery to families with co-occurrence, wide variation in practices and policies at the county level of managing families with co-occurrence, and several important opportunities to improve care for affected families. For example, we conclude that increasing and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.services for these families in need contributes to the challenge of identifying best practices and offering any improvements to existing policies and procedures. ResultsThe results of the FVSS analyses to date are presented in a number of manuscripts that are mostly published or under review. A few are in preparation. All are listed below.Published

No abstract

No abstract