Preventing Domestic Violence and Child Abuse
Legal, Medical, Social, and Faith-Based Strategies for Protecting Children and Families
By Barry Goldstein, Mo Therese Hannah and Veronica York

What would an all-out offensive against Domestic Violence and Child Abuse look like?

“Compelling, comprehensive, and enlightening."
—Amy Neustein, PhD, Co-Author, "From Madness to Mutiny, 2nd Ed."

“A serious addition to the scholarship on domestic violence."
—Eugene M. Hyman, Judge, Superior Court of California, Retired

“This will be the bible for exposing the failures of the Family Court system in the United States, and offering solutions, for years to come."
—Casey Gwinn, Founder, Alliance for HOPE International

“This book is a must-read for lawyers, mental health providers, and survivors who must learn to navigate the hostile environment of the family courts to protect children to avoid negative long-term public health outcomes.”
—Lisa Fischel-Wolovick, JD, MSW, Attorney, Author, and Educator

In 1961, the American Cancer Society and other health organizations submitted a letter to President John F. Kennedy alerting him to research connecting smoking and cancer. President Kennedy directed his Surgeon General, Dr. Luther Terry, to review the research and formulate the necessary response. The Surgeon General’s Report in 1964 definitively confirmed that smoking causes cancer, and pledged to coordinate a national effort to address the harm caused by cigarette smoking. Virtually every corner of society was enlisted in the campaign. The nation collectively developed legal, medical, educational, and regulatory strategies to discourage and in many cases prohibit smoking. The response saved millions of lives and trillions of dollars.  

Like the campaign against cigarette smoking, an effective campaign against DV and child abuse has the potential to save millions of lives and trillions of dollars in health care costs and lost productivity, and prevent incalculable human suffering. Like the campaign against cigarettes, it will take an all-out effort, with the full participation of all corners of society. This book provides a roadmap for how this all-out campaign can work.  

It begins with holding abusers accountable, something that our justice system regularly fails to do. Law enforcement and the courts must recognize abuse for what it is--not the failure of partners to work out their differences, but a recognizable pattern of abuse inflicted by one partner on the other. Accountability is the beginning. The campaign must also extend to the way the health care system responds to evidence of abuse, how journalists and the media report it, how faith communities support victims, and how the legal profession represents victims. Social service agencies, like child protective services, must address the serious deficiencies in their understanding of and response to DV and child abuse. And the courts, especially family and custody courts, must rid themselves of the corrosive biases that infect their decision-making.

Preventing Domestic Violence and Child Abuse assembles an unrivalled team of experts focusing on the essential "legal, medical, social, and faith-based" strategies that will play a role in the effort:

• Barry Goldstein on ridding the custody courts of harmful practices such as treating cases involving domestic violence like ordinary high-conflict divorces, and refocusing the courts' priorities on protecting children, not clearing crowded dockets.
• Lynn Hecht Schafran on the decades long fight to eliminate the gender bias that stacks the deck against mothers in custody proceedings.
• Wendy Murphy on why the Constitution permits women to be treated as second-class citizens, and what to do to correct it.
• Rita Smith on how professional sports and athletic celebrities can become a force for positive change instead of the bad example it often is.
• Veronica York on the failures of child protective services and how to refocus these vital agencies.
• Maureen Hannah on the mistakes chronically made by custody evaluators with no training or expertise in domestic violence.
• Jessica Klein on how media coverage contribute's to society's general poor understanding of abuse, and how to reorient journalistic coverage to more accurately report the reality of DV.
• Plus specialized chapters on the role of lawyers (Elizabeth Liu, JD), front line clinicians (Karli Okeson, MD), and religious communities (Debra Wingfield, Ed.D. and Dan Boeck, B.A.).

The fundamental premise of this book is that we can create a coordinated community response to prevent DV as we did to prevent smoking. It is time, indeed well past time, to wage the same health-enriching, life-saving effort against DV and child abuse.

What your colleagues are saying about Preventing Domestic Violence and Child Abuse ...

“This comprehensive anthology on domestic violence and child abuse is useful both for the seasoned family law attorney, expert witness, or DV counselor as well as for someone at the start of their Odyssey through the family courts, whether as a professional or as a litigant. The book embraces some novel material such as an analysis of faith-based approaches that have now shed the skins of bias that has traditionally kept religious institutions in the dark, imputing blame to battered mothers. Thankfully, that is now starting to change.  Painstakingly honest in showing the shortcomings of the system, the book nevertheless points to significant achievements, such as the Greenbook Initiative of Susan Schechter and Jeffrey L. Edleson. The unique epidemiological framework of this volume, which shows how children suffer lifelong illnesses from Adverse Childhood Experiences stemming from abuse unmitigated by the family courts, lends a clarion call for legislators to step up to the plate and reform the family court and child welfare system. Our work on the Hill has now begun.”
—Amy Neustein, PhD, Co-author with Attorney Michael Lesher of "From Madness to Mutiny: Why Mothers Are Running from the Family Courts—And What Can Be Done about It, 2nd Edition," Oxford University Press, 2026

“Preventing Domestic Violence and Child Abuse is a dynamic, comprehensive resource for the public, survivors of violence and abuse, attorneys, judges, and others who want to find a road map to navigating the Family Court system and the powerful social forces that so often conspire against victims of domestic violence and child abuse when they are seeking help and justice. For years to come, this will be the bible exposing the failures of the Family Court system in the United States and offering solutions. No one who cares about domestic violence and its profound impact on women and children should be without the education and understanding offered in this amazing resource.”
—Casey Gwinn, Founder, Alliance for HOPE International, Former San Diego City Attorney

“Preventing Domestic Violence and Child Abuse brings together physicians, attorneys, mental health providers, and advocates in their detailed inter-disciplinary discussion of the failures of the courts to protect children during custody litigation from the long-term effects of domestic abuse. Integrating their hands-on experiences with the vast body of research in this field, these authors call for professional accountability, a coordinated community response, and recognition of domestic violence as a discreet area of study, requiring specialized training. The authors detail the many critical points during custody litigation in which judicial, legal, and mental health professionals have failed to correctly identify and appropriately respond to domestic abuse resulting in the systemic failure of the courts to protect children. This book is a must-read for lawyers, mental health providers, and survivors who must learn to navigate the hostile environment of the family courts to protect children to avoid negative long-term public health outcomes."
—Lisa Fischel-Wolovick, JD, MSW, Adjunct Full Professor, City University of New York at John Jay College, Author of "Traumatic Divorce and Separation: The Impact of Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse in Custody and Divorce" (Oxford)  

“Preventing Domestic Violence and Child Abuse is a serious addition to the scholarship on the important topic of domestic violence.

"Domestic Violence is present in all divisions of every court system in the world, presenting the important issues of implementing strategies in criminal, family, juvenile, probate, and civil cases. Frequently, families are in several divisions of the court concurrently. Each division has the additional challenge of several professionals working many times, isolated into silos increasing the difficulties of keeping parents and children safe.

"This new resource increases the likelihood that collateral professionals will work more effectively together toward the common goal of meaningful intervention. The book can be cited as authoritative research to judges and juries and to professionals. It can also be used as a teaching text for students at the undergraduate and graduate school level as well as assisting faith based leaders assisting congregations of all faiths.

"Lastly, a copy of the publication must be available in all libraries as a resource for all, including parents who may be unrepresented and who will be assisted in expressing their experiences more effectively to decision makers.”
—Eugene M. Hyman, Judge, Superior Court of California, Retired