Using Data to Understand, Address Children’s Exposure to Domestic Violence

Rebbe’s analysis revealed that, while investigations in which CPS officials deemed CEDV to be a safety concern were relatively rare — just under 6% of the total —they frequently arose alongside other safety risks, such as parental substance misuse and mental health issues.

“This means that these families have complex service needs and a need for effective interventions, which will likely need to be tailored to each family,” Rebbe said.

The analysis also revealed that, compared with other CPS cases, those with CEDV concerns were more likely to involve children under five years old, and CPS intervention in response to these cases was more common in families with younger children.

According to Rebbe and her fellow researchers, this makes sense given the heightened developmental vulnerability of children at this age and their reliance on others to seek help.

Other demographic factors associated with differing CPS responses were less easily explained, however. For instance, rates of CPS investigations, case openings, and foster care placements related to CEDV were higher among certain racial and ethnic groups, particularly Black and Hispanic populations. Rebbe and her team highlighted the need for further investigation to uncover the reasons behind these variations and address any related disparities.

Protecting victims

Their analysis also yielded a concerning finding about how CPS characterizes the role of adults involved in CEDV-related investigations. While Los Angeles County’s policies regarding domestic violence define it as an act committed by one individual against another, the data showed that about a third of CPS investigations involving CEDV concerns implicated more than one family member. This suggests that, in some instances, adults who were themselves victims of domestic abuse may have been held accountable for its impact on the children in their care.

This approach falls under what is known as the “failure-to-protect paradigm,” which penalizes caregivers when children in their care are exposed to domestic violence regardless of its source. Research has shown that this punitive approach is not only ineffective but can increase the dangers faced by victims of domestic abuse and their children.

The evidence Rebbe and her researchers found about the prevalence of this problematic approach led them to advocate for increased efforts to eliminate it at both the policy and practice levels, including further educating child welfare workers about its potential harms.

The insights gained from Rebbe’s analyses into how CEDV is addressed within the child protection system are essential for interested parties — from child welfare administrators to policymakers to advocates — in evaluating the effectiveness of existing approaches.

“Our community partners in LA County are interested in improving their practices and policies regarding the intersection of domestic violence and child protection in a data-driven manner,” she said. “We’ve already presented these results to six different groups to help facilitate this, who were all very interested in our results.”

But Rebbe’s research is far from over.

“There is still quite a bit of work to be done,” she notes. “Our analysis has really focused on the ‘front door’ of child protection, meaning the initial responses to concerns of domestic violence. There is more research needed to understand how these families move through the system after they go through that front door.”

Rebbe is also exploring how new forms of data analysis, including ones recently made available through advances in AI, could enable researchers to analyze additional large and complex datasets relating to child welfare. In particular, she is interested in examining medical records linked to child protection records to further understand how these two systems interact.

“We still lack good evidence about many aspects of child welfare,” Rebbe said. “I plan to continue to use large datasets to address some of these gaps that can be used to improve practice and policies regarding children and families.”