NCJ Number
165615
Date Published
1997
Length
195 pages
Annotation
This volume aims to make health care professionals aware of the nature and extent of domestic assault and provide practical, step-by-step guidance to enable them to intervene appropriately when a person presents signs of being a victim of domestic violence.
Abstract
The guidelines focus on the abuse of adult partners, but the discussion notes that victims can also include children, the elderly, adolescent dating partners, and adolescents and adults currently engaged to be married or involved in dating relationships. The text emphasizes that all health care personnel in emergency and nonemergency sites, ambulatory and primary care facilities, and mental health and drug treatment programs should be on the alert for victims of domestic violence. Practitioners are likely to encounter domestic violence victims in three ways: those seeking care for traumatic injuries following an assault; those seeking medical care for somatic problems, chronic pain, or both; and those seeking care for psychosocial problems that have arisen secondary to the abuse. Individual chapters present historical and legal perspectives, discuss social attitudes toward domestic assault, and explain the dynamics of abuse. Further chapters detail the steps involved in the medical response, methods for ascertaining the true cause of injury, compliance with requirements for reporting injuries, safety issues, and the health provider's roles in the prosecution of domestic violence offenses. Figures, checklists, sample forms, chapter reference lists, index, and 194 references