Criminal justice and social policy processes in the United States have suffered from poor analysis of the problems underlying proposed policies. At times, social issues such as the stability and support of families and unemployment interact with criminal justice issues such as intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment (CM). This juncture requires a careful and thorough evaluation of the interrelated problems at the outset of the policy process so as not to derail its success. This study seeks to inform the initial phase of the policy process by evaluating the concepts of unemployment, IPV, and CM and their relationships. These concepts have large effects on the economic and social aspects of society in the United States and the world. This study hypothesized that fluctuations in the unemployment rate in the United States were positively correlated, to a significant degree, with occurrences of IPV and CM. This study did not, however, seek to portray or establish unemployment as the singular trigger for IPV and/or CM. Rather, it identified and attempted to focus on unemployment as one of several, if not many, possible triggers for IPV and CM. For context, this study identified and discussed some other suspected triggers for IPV and CM, such as alcoholism, prior victimization, and psychopathy. The unemployment rate from 1980 to 2012, inclusive, was compared to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) record for arrests for offenses against families and children for the same period. The unemployment rate was also independently compared to the National Crime Victimization Survey’s (NCVS) record of victimizations related to people arrested for offenses against families and children. The UCR data identified the number of arrests for non-violent offenses on a monthly basis, which allowed for an in-depth analysis of unemployment spikes that occurred within the study period. The NCVS data provided annual information that included violent victimizations as well as distinctions in ages of the victims, which allowed for a more relevant analysis of CM. Combined, analysis of these variables provided a clearer understanding of the relationship or absence of a relationship between unemployment and IPV/CM.