Collaboration among child welfare agencies, the courts, and domestic violence advocates is essential to better understand and respond to the multifaceted issues faced by children, youth, and families affected by domestic violence. The following resources provide information on State and local laws and policies as well as recommendations for practices, strategies, and guidelines to improve services for domestic violence victims and children exposed to violence.
10 Ways to Find Help With Your Case
Kay (2016)
Resource Center on Domestic Violence: Child Protection and Custody
Presents a guide that can help survivors of domestic violence find legal help with their court case, including a lawyer who specializes in domestic violence. The guide also presents ideas on how to get help when a lawyer cannot be found.
Child Witnesses to Domestic Violence
Creating a Domestic Violence Court: Adapting the Model to Your Community (PDF - 992 KB)
Center for Court Innovation (2014)
Presents a toolkit to help communities assess their current approaches to domestic violence cases and develop their own domestic violence court. The toolkit guides assessment, planning, and implementation of domestic violence court programs and reviews why domestic violence courts are needed, types of domestic violence courts, creating a planning team, data collection, and more.
Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Resources
Center for Judicial Excellence (2019)
Offers links to resources relating to domestic violence and child maltreatment and the courts.
Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Explores training, policy development, and technical assistance provided by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges around issues relating to domestic violence and the effects of violence and abuse across the lifespan.
Domestic Violence and Court Community Engagement: Serving Community Needs Through a Coordinated Response [Webinar]
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Describes the court's role in coordinated community response programs to address domestic violence, which bring together the justice system, human services programs, and advocates.
Domestic Violence Benchbooks: A Guide to Court Intervention (PDF - 294 KB)
Ling & Crank (2015)
Center for Court Innovation
Offers guidance for judges and other members of the justice system on best practices to address domestic violence and sexual assault through the courts.
Immigrant Survivors of Domestic/Sexual Violence in Your Courtroom: Introduction to the Immigration System and Status Options [Webinar]
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (2018)
Presents a 90-minute webinar that provides an overview of the immigration system and status options for immigrant survivors of domestic violence. The webinar also offers a discussion on how outcomes from court cases may help or harm survivors' ability to gain safety through immigration status.
Reasonable Efforts in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases That Involve Domestic Violence (PDF - 4,772 KB)
Bohannan, Mangiaracina, Sicafuse, & Zavora (2017)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Presents information on how judges from three U.S. jurisdictions handle cases involving child maltreatment and domestic violence and summarizes trends, differences, and challenges observed during reviews of these three sites.
Tip Sheet for Planning Court-Based Domestic Violence Training (PDF - 202 KB)
Center for Court Innovation (2017)
Provides a tip sheet for court administrators, managers, judges, advocates, and others looking to implement effective domestic violence training for judicial and nonjudicial personnel.
Custody and visitation
5 Myths About Child Custody and Domestic Violence
DomesticShelters.org (2016)
Discusses some myths about child custody and domestic violence and presents the truth on each.
10 Things to Know About Parenting Plans in Cases Involving Domestic Violence (PDF - 1,014 KB)
Mangiaracina (2019)
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
Provides basic information on parenting plans so that survivors of domestic violence and their children can create an appropriate parenting plan as part of their custody case.
Child Custody
Battered Women's Justice Project (2020)
Examines child custody cases with domestic violence and factors that contribute to experiences of domestic violence being ignored in court. The resource also reviews employing a structured approach to decision-making, connecting domestic violence to parenting, and accountability and due process.
Child Custody Decisions in Cases Involving Domestic Violence: Guiding Principles
Hanson (2017)
U.S. Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women
Offers a list of 16 guiding principles for courts on how to address child custody in cases involving domestic violence.
Guiding Principles for Effectively Addressing Child Custody and Parenting Time in Cases Involving Domestic Violence (PDF - 1,403 KB)
Battered Women's Justice Project, Center for Court Innovation, & the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (2017)
Reviews a set of guiding principles that enable courts and communities to implement procedures and practices designed to improve custody and parenting time decision-making in cases involving domestic violence. This resource reviews the guiding principles, which are meant to encourage court professionals across the system to collaborate to improve outcomes for families involved in domestic violence cases.
How Can I Help Domestic Violence Survivors Who Are Involved in Custody Cases and Don't Have a Lawyer?
Kay (2019)
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, VAWnet
Explains how to help survivors of domestic violence who are seeking court orders or court decisions through family court without the assistance of a lawyer.
What Must Family Court Judges Know About Domestic Violence to Safeguard Children in Contested Cases?
Blow (2017)
Stop Abuse Campaign
Discusses the types of knowledge and training court professionals should have in order to effectively respond to domestic violence custody cases. The article reviews the impact of domestic violence on children, postseparation violence, risk assessment, dynamics of domestic violence, batterer narratives, and more.
State and local examples
Domestic Violence Project
Lawyers for Children (2019)
Represents children in high-conflict custody or visitation cases where one of the parents have been arrested for domestic violence and the children have witnessed or been affected by violence in the home.
Florida's Dependency Benchbook: Domestic Violence and the Effects on Children (PDF - 290 KB)
Florida Courts (2017)
Offers a benchbook for judges in Florida that provides statistics and background information on the impact of domestic violence on children and reviews how to find out whether domestic violence is present during a dependency case, issues involved with domestic violence in dependency cases, and best practices in dependency cases involving domestic violence.
Friend of the Court Domestic Violence Resource Guide (PDF - 648 KB)
Michigan State Court Administrative Office (2019)
Provides information about detecting and responding to domestic violence at various stages in the court process. The guide helps Friend of the Court offices understand the importance of screening for intimate partner violence, learn how to identify cases where violence is present, develop safety procedures, learn how to minimize contact between the two parties, and more.
Leading by Doing: Innovations in Addressing Domestic Violence in Rural Virginia
Wolf (2018)
Center for Court Innovation
Offers an interview with a judge and court coordinator in Virginia who discuss the types of strategies they use when working with domestic violence cases.