Arlington, TX
I would like to connect with one of our closest non-governmental partners, the Alliance For Children, to test and evaluate the impact on intimate partner violence, by beginning a consistent practice of forensically interviewing child witnesses of domestic violence. Our department, in an ongoing partnership with the Alliance For Children and the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, has modeled a consistent and successful practice of forensically interviewing child victims of sexual abuse and continuous physical abuse to better aid in the prosecution and conviction of offenders. The expansion of this practice into the realm of domestic violence prosecution when children are witnesses will hopefully also aid in the services offered to families of domestic violence and aid in the prosecution of said offenses. I hope to research historical cases where a child was present, yet not interviewed, and do a direct comparison of conviction rate and time sentenced for those in which a child was forensically interviewed.