Bad to the Bone: The Interconnectedness of Pet Abuse, Child Abuse, and Partner Abuse Based on the presenter’s recent publications in Social Sciences (2022), the Journal of Interpersonal Violence (2021 & 2020), Forensic Science International: Animals and Environments (2021), and book on the topic (2021), this presentation will describe the specific emotional and physical risks of harm for all children, adults, and animals residing in homes where family violence occurs. Key points of emphasis include protecting pets to best protect their humans too, improved attention to and understanding of the damaging effects of emotional abuse, and the need to expand community partnerships to include critical (often left out) organizations in the fight to end family violence. 
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In addition to increased risk for victims, concerns for the safety of first responders at the scene of these incidents will also be addressed. Key concepts including how DV perpetrator pet abuse may signal increased risk for police officers and others involved in cases of family violence will be explored. New data from a partnership between the presenter, child welfare agencies, and law enforcement agencies in several communities will be highlighted to provide unique perspective regarding the overlapping nature of these different forms of abuse and ways different disciplines can better support one another.

​​Developing a Multi-Disciplinary Perspective to Domestic Violence: This workshop provides a unique take on domestic violence prevention, identification, and intervention by enabling participants to develop a multi-disciplinary perspective of violence in the home. Results from my national domestic violence survey of victim serving agencies across multiple disciplines will be discussed. Discipline-specific (and shared) barriers to working with victims of domestic violence will be identified (legal, church, law enforcement, education staff, social services, medical, animal, dv shelter). Participants will learn of critical concepts for overcoming these barriers, developing a multi-disciplinary response, and promoting data-driven, effective and efficient community-inclusive methods to better identify and assist these victims of violence.

Here, There, and Everywhere: Harm Perpetrated in the Home Impacts the Entire Community: Participants will learn of the bi-directional relationship between community violence and family violence. Findings from the presenter’s review of 58 school shooting incidents occurring in the U.S. since 1990 will be discussed along with case study examples of serial killers and recent mass shooting incidents. Participants will learn of common trends in behavioral and social histories of perpetrators of mass violence including exposure to family violence and other adverse childhood experiences. Additionally, the presenter’s study of youth suicide and comparisons between teen suicide notes and school shooter journal entries will be discussed.

Participants will learn how exposure to community violence can increase risk of abuse in homes throughout the community. The many ways community violence impacts children will be highlighted, along with a discussion on how these effects often create strain on the child-caregiver bond/relationship. Reported rates of domestic violence in communities impacted by major mass violence incidents will be compared both before and after the event to further explore connections between violence in the community and abuse in the home.

Finally, participants will learn of collaborative, multi-disciplinary approaches to reducing violence/abuse in the home and community with an emphasis on child mental health and ending cycles of violence and abuse. Topics include expanding the list of adverse childhood experiences, appropriately responding to children in “emotional distress”, the relationship between harm in the home and committing acts of violence in the community, child perpetration of animal cruelty, bullying and its impact on child mental health, religion and school shooters, and preventing future acts of violence in schools. ​

No Safe Place: How Domestic Violence Harms Children: Children don’t just witness domestic violence, they EXPERIENCE it. Even when not the direct target of the abusive act, seeing a parent, sibling, grandparent, or pet targeted by abuse can have a significant long-term emotional and psychological impact on children. In fact, many childhood survivors of domestic violence often indicate wishing THEY had been the target of the abuse, rather than having to watch their loved ones be targeted by the abuser.
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This presentation will discuss the specific threats of physical, psychological, and emotional harm for children living in a home where partner abuse/domestic violence occurs. Common misconceptions will be addressed, including the idea that a child can be too young to be affected by abuse in the home, physically observable signs of injury are an appropriate estimator of victimization, and the idea that children who do not actually see a violent act occur are not significantly harmed by it.

In addition, participants will learn of multi-disciplinary initiatives and concepts that relate to improving prevention and detection of domestic violence occurring in homes where children reside and mitigating the harmful impact of witnessing and experiencing the abuse of a loved one. Other topics to be discussed include: the various forms of child emotional maltreatment, toxic stress, child-caregiver attachment, “emotionally unavailable parents”, the effects of witnessing threats or violence against animals living within the home, caregiver risk factors for domestic violence and emotional maltreatment, how to better identify victims, and what to do once victims have been identified.