The Value of Multidisciplinary Teams Reviewing Domestic Violence Cases Involving Children: One Connecticut Team’s Experience

Connecticut’s child abuse Multidisciplinary Teams (MDTs)—statutory bodies that bring together child welfare, prosecutors, police, and victim advocates to review serious cases—were built to handle sexual abuse and severe physical abuse. In 2004, Middlesex County’s team made a different choice: it began regularly reviewing serious domestic violence cases involving children too, on the reasoning that DV is often present in homes where a child is critically injured or killed.

In fall 2009, David Mandel, founder and CEO of the Safe & Together Institute, surveyed the 11 Middlesex team members who took part. Every respondent said their agency had benefited from teaming domestic violence cases, and every respondent said the practice had improved how they handled sexual and physical abuse cases too. Recurring themes included better perpetrator accountability, more thorough safety planning, and closing gaps in services—one member specifically credited the team’s work with funding a year-round support group for children exposed to domestic violence.

The report closes with a set of no-cost recommendations for other teams considering the same step, from inviting local domestic violence consultants to participate directly to setting a simple monthly target for how many DV cases to review.