Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The overlap between domestic violence and child maltreatment has received an enormous amount of attention from domestic violence advocates, child advocates, policymakers, and researchers. The goals of empowering victims of domestic violence, usually women, and protecting children from abuse and neglect, usually by men, are theoretically compatible and mutually reinforcing. However, advocacy for battered mothers and protection for maltreated children have developed along different paths, leading to conflict and distrust (Edleson, 1999).