Violence between intimate partners, or former partners, in dating or marriage relationships can result in physical injury, psychological trauma, and even death. Violence may include intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, emotional abuse, stalking, and other abusive behavior. The negative effects of domestic violence (DV)/intimate partner violence (IPV) also can extend beyond the direct victim. There is no doubt that the consequences of DV, in addition to other forms of physical abuse and self-harm, are significant, both to the individuals involved and society. The failure to identify and accurately document the number of individuals affected represents a missed opportunity to build awareness, develop interventions, evaluate treatments, and target preventions.

This project aims to fill that gap through record linkage and analysis. Specifically, we plan to estimate the incidence of family violence using medical encounter data, describe the sociodemographic and health characteristics of individuals with an identified DV-related concern, identify best practices for measuring DV in medical encounter datasets, and investigate how an indication of DV identified during the Child Protection Hotline intake affects downstream system response to allegations of maltreatment. We plan to share findings with key stakeholders and disseminate findings to inform practice and policy.