ABSTRACT
Millions of women are victimized by an intimate partner annually. Children in these families are the invisible victims. In the United States, about one in five children are “exposed” to intimate partner physical violence during their lifetimes. That is, they witness the abuse of their mothers but are not physically abused themselves. A child welfare practice in the United States results in removal of these children from the home based on the mother’s status as a victim of domestic violence. This practice appears to violate Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). A famous New York court case (Nicholson v. Scoppetta 2004), held out hope of putting an end to this harmful child welfare practice. This paper explores this landmark legal case and its legacy.
