Child welfare as a gateway to domestic violence services

This paper uses data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well Being to examine the identification of domestic violence (DV) by child welfare workers during investigations of maltreatment and determine how this contributes to the receipt of DV services. The study focuses on female caregivers of children remaining in the home following the investigation (n = 3165). While child welfare workers indicate that active DV is present in only 12% of families investigated for maltreatment, 31% of caregivers reported DV victimization in the past year. The sensitivity of reports of DV is low between caregivers and workers, with both reporting active or recent DV in only 8% of families. Substance abuse by the primary caregiver is a strong predictor of under identification of DV by the child welfare worker (OR = 7.6). Overall, about half of the caregivers with active DV identified by the worker received DV services over the 18 months following the investigation. Logistic regression analyses examined whether receipt of child welfare services (CWS) increases the likelihood that a referral will be made to DV services and whether caregivers will then obtain these services. Both the identification of DV by the worker and having an open CWS case are significant contributors to receipt of DV services.