ABSTRACT
In my own field of specialization-child maltreatment and intimate violence-not only have nonevaluated family support programs dominated the field, but some programs, such as Intensive Family Preservation Services continue to dominate the field in spite of the fact that high-quality evaluations fail to support any of the hypotheses proposing positive outcomes for children and/or families (Gelles, 1996b, 2000; Heneghan, Horwitz, & Leventhal, 1996; National Research Council, 1998). Of late in the field of child maltreatment, there has been increasing use of a program developed in New Zealand, Family Group Conferencing, as a family support intervention in cases of child maltreatment. The adoption of this program expands even in the absence of any reasonable controlled evaluation of the programs (Bartholet, 1999).
