Police in the Lives of Young Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

• NCJ Number: 208752
• Author(s): Miriam Berkman J.D.; Dean Esserman J.D.
• Date Published: January 2004
• Length: 38 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2001-16630
• Sponsoring Agency: David and Lucile Packard Foundation
• Sale Source: University of Iowa
• Publication Format: Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Instructional Material
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded February 14, 2005.

Annotation

This paper--one in a series of six papers from the series, "Early Childhood, Domestic Violence, and Poverty: Helping Young Children and Their Families"--explores the role that police officers can play in assisting children and their families victimized by domestic violence.

Abstract

Currently, children in families where partner abuse occurs may not be considered in police responses, reports, and subsequent actions. If child maltreatment occurs in a domestic violence situation, police typically refer the child to child protective services. Despite some progress in these areas, most police departments do not train or expect officers to look for or act on behalf of children as unintended victims or individuals in immediate need. Beginning in the 1980's, however, the community policing movement has brought dramatic change to many police departments throughout the country, particularly in large, urban settings. The adoption of community policing has important implications for police responses to domestic violence. Both at a neighborhood level and at a department-wide level, community-based officers are more likely to have established relationships with advocacy and support organizations that can assist in meeting some of the victim's and family's needs. This paper provides a guiding framework for police action in responding to domestic violence within a community policing context. This framework involves supporting parents' efforts to keep their children safe, recognizing children's physical and psychological dependence on parents, building officers' awareness of how victims and witnesses experience violence and trauma, interacting with adults and children in a respectful and nonpunitive way, and establishing institutional connections between police departments and other community and cultural resources that support battered women and their children. Using this framework, this paper identifies and describes a range of police interventions that can benefit young children exposed to domestic violence. 34 references and appended information on children's responses to violence in a developmental context