Results of a preliminary study addressing the problem of family violence show that domestic disturbance situations present significant danger for both disputants and responding police officers. Development of a training curriculum resulting from this study is described. Major goals focused on increasing officers' understanding of family systems, stress and crisis, effective communication, conflict management, and referral to community resources. The importance of effective program coordination to overall success of the program is discussed, with emphasis on the need for a two-way open systems approach to communication. An overview of the curriculum is provided, together with summaries of modules addressing safety, defusion, communication, resolution, and referral skills. The importance of employee assistance programs for police officer stress yields more effective police responses to family disturbances is discussed. Finally, methods for evaluating training programs are described, including class evaluations, attitude surveys, and outcome studies. Evaluation instruments are appended. Chapter references and annotated bibliography. For individual articles, see NCJ-113216-113219.