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In the Best Interest of Women and Children: A Call for Collaboration Between Child Welfare and Domestic Violence Constituencies

NCJ Number
165435
Author(s)
S Schechter; J L Edleson
Date Published
1994
Length
19 pages
Annotation
After showing an overlap in the circumstances of battered women and abused children, this paper identifies barriers to cooperation between the agencies and organizations that serve these two categories of victims and then shows why their common concerns are sufficient to overcome these barriers.
Abstract
Case examples, data, and research studies indicate that some of the most difficult cases faced by both child welfare and battered women's programs are ones where the two classes of victims are in the same household. Yet several factors apparently impede the ability of these organizations to cooperate more fully. These include the fact that the respective movements are at different historical points in their development; they abide by different philosophies; and they sometimes seek different outcomes, use different professional terminologies, and sometimes compete for funding and recognition. Perhaps the most important factor that slows greater cooperation is the way the two fields think about the key issues of the best interests of children, the focus on abused women's needs, and the role of the male perpetrator. In spite of the tensions between child welfare and battered women's programs, their common concerns are far stronger than their differences. Both types of organizations can build cooperative services on battered women's concerns for their children and on support for the mother-child unit. As more communities call for coordinated interventions to stop family violence, agencies must work together. A conceptual and practical linking of the needs of women and children would make these collaborations far more fruitful and change the way service groups think about the needs of families. 50 references