The more knowledgeable we become about the syndrome and cycles of family violence, the more likely we are to predict, fear, and assume that battered women and their children suffer from a learned helplessness. The paradox of the domestic violence situation is that it often leads to the separation of women and children: if a battered women reports domestic violence in her home, her children might be removed; if a child makes a report, he or she may be placed in foster care or a group home. Courts typically see a woman's inability to protect her child as inexcusable, even if it is based on legitimate and reasonable fear. There is also a paradox of intervention. Alternatives offered or mandated by the state may actually cause new injuries or have an adverse effect on larger social problems like racism and victim blaming. The author suggests ways to restructure intervention, including: (1) Examine the root causes of today's social problems, (2) Begin early in children's lives to educate them about gender roles, and (3) Appoint independent legal counsel for children. In addition, child protective services must work in conjunction with police, shelters, and other programs to provide meaningful alternatives, to alleviate the economic pressure on women to stay with their children in violent homes, and to reinstate training for family court, supreme court, and criminal court judges. Footnotes