Research Goals: Exposure to domestic violence has a damaging and long-term impact on children’s emotional, cognitive, social development and adult functioning.  Therefore, there is a dire need to provide protective services to children in families with domestic violence.  Although Taiwan is the first country in Asia which passed the “Family Violence Prevention and Intervention Act” in 1998, services provided to children exposed to domestic violence have no legal ground in the Act.  This study thus aims to promote the legal reforms required to better help children exposed to domestic violence, based on a careful evaluation of their potential consequences and benefits.

Research Design: The research design integrated qualitative and quantitative research methods in three stages.  The first stage collected qualitative data from six focus groups, and a questionnaire was designed according to the qualitative data.  The second stage collected national quantitative data via questionnaire from social workers involved in service provision to children exposed to domestic violence in every city in Taiwan in 2012.  The third stage proposed legal changes to both public administration and NGO sectors.

Results: Both the public administration and NGO sectors have accepted the author’s motion to amend the Family Violence Prevention and Intervention Act in Taiwan.  The modified law will clearly define what constitutes “children exposed to family violence” and protection orders can be granted to these children.  The proposed bill was sent to the legislature and is expected to be passed at the end of this year.