Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on September 6, 2007
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2007 7(4):253-274; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhm016
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Double Jeopardy: Risk Assessment in the Context of Child Maltreatment and Domestic Violence
From the Bell Canada Child Welfare Research Center, University of Toronto (Shlonsky), California State University and CSULA Child Abuse and Family Violence Institute (Friend)
Contact author: Aron Shlonsky, Associate Professor and Director, Bell Canada Child Welfare Research Center, University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work, 246 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5S1A1, Canada. E-mail: aron.shlonsky{at}utoronto.ca.
Investigations of child maltreatment often involve domestic violence, but there is little guidance about how to properly assess risk in such cases. Empirically validated risk assessment tools have been used successfully in child welfare and, to a lesser extent, in cases involving domestic violence, but these have generally not been utilized in tandem. Using the allegation of child maltreatment as the entry point for services, this paper proposes a nested risk assessment framework whereby risk of both child maltreatment and domestic violence are considered simultaneously using two different standardized instruments.
KEY WORDS: child abuse, domestic violence, risk assessment