New York City Bar Association - Committees on Governmental Affairs

On a daily basis, family and criminal courts depend on mandated domestic violence services for resolving cases of intimate partner violence. Thousands of defendants and respondents in our city are required to complete these services in order to have visits with their children or get back in their homes. Yet there is little evidence of the effectiveness of existing services and there continues to be a reliance on outdated services such as Batterers Accountability programs. New York City policymakers have been examining this issue and have developed a Blueprint for Abusive Partner Intervention. A report published in 2018, “Seeding Generations: New Strategies Towards Services for People who Abuse,” took a comprehensive look at this issue and the need for a new model of services. The report acknowledges that services to families also need to consider the trauma that those who harm have been through. This panel on January 17, 2019 served as an opportunity for policymakers to have a dialogue with family court and c