Court Review: Volume 39, Issue 2 - Making a Difference: Tools to Help Judges Support the Healing of Children Exposed to Domestic Violence

Domestic violence has emerged from the privacy of one’s own home, where only the victims were aware of the abuse, to more public domains, where one can witness the impact of such abuse on society through our court system. Judges, in both the civil and criminal arenas, exercise considerable power in instituting a wide range of possible dispositions in cases involving domestic violence. The Family Violence Prevention Fund’s National Judicial Education Advisory Committee concluded that judges made the most significant decisions affecting the lives of victims, abusers, and their children. Judges can also play a significant role in shaping society’s response to the issue of domestic violence