UCI Law

UCI Initiative to End Family Violence

Mission: To be the premier site for research, education, clinical care, and community collaboration on family violence prevention and intervention. Vision: A world in which people of all ages are safe within their families and relationships. Focus on Healthy Teen Relationships and Teen Dating Violence Prevention: The IEFV has been compelled to do extensive work on teen dating violence because (1) the expanse of the problem demands attention, with research showing that one in three teenage girls experiences teen dating violence, and (2) the immediate and lifetime consequences of teen dating violence demand action, with harms including physical and psychological injury, reproductive coercion and sexual abuse, increased rates of sexually transmitted disease and unplanned pregnancy, interference with education, and decreased lifetime wages. The World Health Organization recommends that teen dating violence prevention be targeted to youth ages 11 to 14, and the IEFV has led local and national efforts to engage in prevention education, research, and clinical care regarding teen dating violence. Unique Approach: The Initiative to End Family Violence (IEFV) unites an unprecedented range of faculty with community partners to address intimate partner and familial violence across the lifespan, from child abuse to teen dating violence to adult intimate partner violence and elder abuse. The IEFV is truly unique in the world in bringing together such diverse expertise, with faculty partners from 11 schools and 21 departments at UCI ranging from arts and dance to education, engineering, law, medicine, nursing, public health, and beyond. The IEFV addresses family violence across the lifespan to be able to address the interconnected causes of intimate abuse, the intergenerational transmission of abuse and of victimization/survivorship, and solutions for prevention, intervention, and healing. Combining educators, researchers, and practitioners at UCI with community partners also enables the IEFV to translate research findings into significant applications and policy that can treat and prevent family violence.

UCI Law Domestic Violence Clinic

The mission of the University of California, Irvine School of Law’s Domestic Violence Clinic (DVC) is to provide transformative legal representation to abuse survivors and their children in Orange County while educating law students to become client-centered, culturally competent, ethical, effective, and courageous attorneys. The UCI Law DVC is one of the only clinics in the nation to provide holistic representation to abuse survivors, with advocacy extending to civil, criminal, immigration, appellate, and policy interventions in abuse. Multiple Clinic clients have remarked about the DVC: “You saved my life,” and the DVC has a multitude of examples of its work representing clients in crisis and achieving remarkable outcomes for these women and children in Orange County. Receiving referrals from local organizations such as Laura’s House, Human Options, and Radiant Futures, the DVC serves Orange County’s low-income abuse survivors by providing free legal representation across areas of the law and tailored to clients’ needs. It is not unusual for the DVC to represent a single client in her restraining order, child custody and support, Marsy’s Law, and immigration cases. Referrals are accepted without discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin or disability. The clinic consistently holds 40 cases on its docket. Overall, approximately 98% of DVC clients are low-income women, 90% have children, 75% are women of color, 25% lack secure immigration status, and 15% of clients do not speak English. Almost all clients are women, most with children, who are a critical component of each client’s motivation to be free from violence. Clinic faculty and students are trained in trauma-informed care and survivor-centered, client-centered legal representation in which healing justice is a primary focus. Faculty and students apply these principles to their interaction with clients, in case planning, and throughout litigation and client advocacy. Professor Jane Stoever, who directs the DVC, has written extensive scholarship about domestic violence dynamics, multiple oppressions faced by abuse survivors, such as HIV-related intimate partner violence and reproductive coercion, and improving legal responses to and representation of abuse survivors. Her work is featured in Domestic Violence Law textbooks and her articles on domestic violence representation have been cited by California appellate courts. The DVC’s evidence-based curriculum is available upon request. The DVC has also assisted multiple abuse survivors with child abduction (both the international and domestic return of abducted babies and children), employment, housing, and public benefits problems. DVC’s special emphasis on holistic legal services, in addition to prevention education in local high schools, makes it a worthy partner for many social service agencies.