NCJ Number
180603
Date Published
1999
Length
132 pages
Annotation
This book aims to offer communities a guiding framework to develop interventions and measure progress as they seek to improve their responses to families experiencing domestic assault and child abuse; it aims to present leaders of communities and institutions with a context-setting tool to develop public policy to keep families safe and stable.
Abstract
An advisory committee of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges developed the recommendations over a period of 7 months. The book focuses on battered mothers, while recognizing that men are also victims of battering. The first chapter articulates on overall principle of safety, well-being, and stability for all victims of family violence, as well as the need to hold batterers accountable for their violence. Specific principles also include having children in the care of their non-offending parent or parents, a community service system with many points of entry, and a differential response to families. The second chapter develops a series of principles to guide communities in structuring their responses to families experiencing dual forms of violence. These principles include collaborative leadership, the expansion and reallocation of resources, respect and dignity for all people, the building of internal capacity, information disclosure and privacy protections, and information collection and evaluation systems. The third, fourth, and fifth chapters focus on specific recommendations for the child protection, the network of domestic violence service providers, and the juvenile or other trial courts with jurisdiction over child maltreatment cases. Sixty-seven recommendations; reference notes; and appended definitions, 13 curricula, protocols, and publications, and list of committee members and others