Child Maltreatment in United States Military Families: The Military Family Advocacy Program has Given Increased Attention to the Prevention of Family Violence

This article discusses the child maltreatment in united states military families and how military Family Advocacy Program has given increased attention to the prevention of family violence. The U.S. military has increased its efforts to effectively treat family members (victims and offenders) when a military family experiences child maltreatment. Ongoing endeavors to intervene effectively when child maltreatment occurs include the use of empirically validated interventions and evaluations of the effectiveness of these interventions in the military context. The U.S. military has put in place an array of system-wide efforts both to prevent child maltreatment and to strengthen military families, and continues to explore new ways to support military families. To further address the issue of child maltreatment in military families, the Department of Defense (DOD) established "The Prevention and Coordinated Community Response to Child Abuse and Neglect and Domestic Abuse/Intimate Partner Violence Working Group." The mission of the working group is to review DOD family violence processes with all stakeholders to improve the military’s prevention of and community response to all forms of family violence. Additional changes are expected to result from this working group.