Child protection and domestic violence: Training, practice, and policy issues

This article traces the experiences of four of the five Department of Healt h and Human Services (DHHS) recipients who received funding to provide dome stic violence training to child welfare agencies in four areas of the Unite d States.' The article begins with the developing research that documents t he connection between child abuse and domestic violence and explores the fe rtile ground for tensions between battered women and their advocates and ch ild protective service (CPS) workers. The article also presents findings fr om the experiences of the DHHS funded programs, their accomplishments, and the obstacles they faced in integrating domestic violence into child welfar e practice with the ultimate goal of protecting the mother-child unit. Fina lly, it concludes with practice and policy recommendations for researchers and practitioners who are working at the intersection of these abuses.