Child Survivors of Intimate Partner Homicide: Wraparound Intervention

Research into intimate partner homicide and the work of domestic violence fatality review teams identify the hidden plight of a population of child survivors of these killings and their new caregivers. Child survivors are those who have lost a parent, usually their mother, in an intimate partner homicide. Until recently, no systematic statewide intervention existed to address this vulnerable population. The chapter opens with the narrative account of the experiences of a child survivor and an accompanying research commentary. It pays particular attention to the experiences of child survivors - what some experience or witness and the complex and intense trauma associated with those experiences. It examines the various developments to intervene with that vulnerable and often marginalized population and provide services to child survivors and their new caregivers. Importantly, the material maps the origins, development, philosophy, and operational tenets and practices of a novel program in Arizona designed to serve these child survivors and their caregivers. That program is the Arizona Child and Adolescent Survivor Initiative (ACASI). Finally, the chapter explores some of the challenges and paradoxes of doing this work.