Effect of Unified Family Courts on Public Health: Domestic violence, recidivism, foster care case resolution

Twenty-states have recently adopted unified family courts (UFC) as a public policy measure to improve the efficiency of case processing and/or outcomes for the individuals served. Limited rigorous research exists to test the effectiveness of these courts. This study uses North Carolina data from 1997-2008 collected by the Administrative Office of the Courts, Department of Public Instruction, Division of Social Services and information on hospital discharges. Outcomes are examined that reflect potential benefits of UFC implementation including a) recidivism rate for individuals convicted of domestic violence charges b) hospital discharge rates of women and children related to potential abuse categories c) a set of variables related to foster care case resolution, including time in foster care and whether the youth is reunified with the parent, adopted, emancipated, or runs way or dies. In addition, we examine the effect of foster care case resolution on education outcomes including math and reading scores, attendance and grade retention. All models, except for education outcomes, include covariates for the presence of a UFC, a drug treatment court, a youth drug treatment court and a family drug treatment court and county-year fixed effects and time varying county characteristics. Models related to children in foster care also include child characteristics (reason for placement, disability status and family, gender, race/ethnicity and age) and family characteristics (family structure and number of children in the home). Early evidence suggests that UFCs reduce the time spent in foster care and the probability that foster youth are reunified with their parents.