School of Social Work Professor Jeff Edleson’s study about battered women who become involved in legal disputes under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction received widespread attention after its release on December 10. Time magazine’s homepage featured a story about the study, as did the University of Minnesota’s homepage.

Edleson and Sudha Shetty of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs are members of the Hague Domestic Violence research team that completed the study. Their work revealed that women who fled to the U.S. to escape abusive husbands had the courts send their children back to their fathers in half of the cases. Although returning the children was in accordance with the Hague Convention, in the 30 years since that treaty was created, social science research has demonstrated that a child’s exposure to domestic violence is just as harmful as direct abuse. Find more information at the Hague Domestic Violence Project Web site.
Also on the day of the study’s release, the findings were presented in a unique continuing-education event at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. Approximately 500 people attended the live program at the Guthrie, and another 822 joined via webcast from all over the world. Thomson Reuters Web site will have a recording of the webcast available for free viewing for the next three months.