One of the unintended effects of these programs could be the exacerbation of domestic violence as men become reinvolved with their families when this involvement is resisted because of previous domestic violence. It seems important to me for these fathers' programs to be trained to assess for domestic violence, to experiment with programmatic interventions, and to evaluate these interventions. This kind of work with low-income men would provide a rich field for the gathering of knowledge about male abusers which could move us forward in our understanding of the dynamics of this abuse and its prevention. We need special attention to the issues of teens on welfare who are current victims of domestic violence. This is true for a variety of reasons.
Teens often feel they are unable to use the helping systems available to older persons.
Many do not call the police or get an order of protection due to fears of losing their own children or getting their parents or guardians in trouble, or themselves coming within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. Intervention is also difficult because many teens are in the throes of a first romance. In my own recent research with teens, I have found that in some instances the abuser tries to sabotage these girls' use of contraception and actively encourages constant reproduction as a means of keeping the girl tied to him, in the home, and out of the labor market. Other abusers state that if their partners use birth control, they would be freer to enter into other relationships. I think we have a lot to learn about how domestic violence keeps young poor girls, who do not wish to have more children, from being able to control their own reproduction.