Recommended Areas for Further Study

The following recommendations as cited in the IASWR-CDC Report emerged from the systematic review of the research projects described above:

• Conduct additional research on the linkages between domestic violence and child abuse;
• Undertake research and evaluation efforts to examine the effectiveness of prevention and intervention programs, including family and community-based strategies to prevent neglect;
• Use diverse methods, including detailed case analysis, interviews with families and service providers and community input to evaluate community based efforts that are targeted to better integrate child maltreatment and domestic violence services including feedback from individuals and groups about what worked, how it worked, and why;
• Undertake studies to examine the dynamics between domestic violence and child maltreatment on such variables as severity and chronicity of the violence.
• Create and evaluate coordinated cross-system community responses that will better integrate child maltreatment and domestic violence prevention and intervention efforts, including coordination among child welfare, courts, domestic violence services and the police.
• Undertake studies to examine the individual, interpersonal, and social system dynamics associated with the co-occurrence of child maltreatment and domestic violence, including links of poverty to maltreatment, substance abuse, mental health and domestic violence;
• Study the effects of witnessing domestic violence on a child's development, particularly the long-term effects and potential protective factors;
• Study the effectiveness of specific programs for battered women with maltreated children and for child witnesses of domestic violence;
• Study the effectiveness of system responses, in particular coordinated responses to families with both forms of violence;
• Study the consequences for children and women of reporting domestic violence in child protection and court settings;
• Study the process and factors by which women evaluate their safety as well as the safety of their children, particularly in cases involving both domestic violence and child maltreatment;
• Study the dynamics involved in cases where adult victims of domestic violence are, in turn, abusive to children in the home (Schechter & Edelson, 1999, p. 47-48).
• Test interventions in diverse communities and settings at the individual, family, agency and community levels.